The state Government has in the meantime prepared a 60-page report on the damage caused to roads and bridges by landslides and flashfloods in the current year. “The Chief Minister is sending this report to the Centre and seeking assistance to get the repair work done,” Tuki said.

Arunachal Pradesh had only in January this year got an announcement from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for construction of a 1,840-km two-lane Trans-Arunachal Highway that would cost roughly about Rs 6,000 crore. The proposed highway is supposed to run from Tawang in the west to Khonsa in the east, touching every district of the largest state in the region. The PMGSY, too, has helped Arunachal Pradesh construct 838 km of roads in 2007-08, while 62 new roads, connecting as many villages to the main arterial roads, are also under construction, Tuki pointed out.

Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu, meanwhile, has got the Centre’s approval for construction of a 2,951-km two-lane road under the Special Accelerated Road Development Programme (SARDP) in two phases.

There was a time when the state had just a few hundred kilometers of roads. “With time, the total road length has registered a quantum jump. Roads after all are the only means in a state where there are no railways,” said Otem Dai, commissioner, public works. In fact, a large number of villages in the state have yet to get a road link with PDS items continuing to be carried in headloads to reach the common man.

But the most interesting case is that of Vijaynagar in Changlang district in eastern Arunachal: the township has a well-maintained airstrip that has a regular AN-32 service, but no car has ever reached the place because there is no road to Vijaynagar!