Arunachal's First State Highway Crumbles: Landslides, Neglect Leave Itanagar-Jote Road in Ruins

ITANAGAR: The state's first highway, Itanagar-Jote road of 20 kilometers is lying in bad shape. Landslides have left much devastation and even scattered portions of the road in many areas.

Torrential rains that accompanied monsoon rains this year only made things worse, to the extent that the authorities had to close the route from Itanagar to Baat village.

Despite the widespread destruction, remediation efforts have been minimal. The landslide debris still remains uncleared and it appears both the contractor and the Public Works Department (PWD) are staying far from the project. Construction on the highway commenced on October 31, 2021, with supervision from the Doimukh PWD division. Bhimji Private Limited, Gujarat is the contractor.

Locals have complained that the department has not kept the place clean. "The contractor and PWD should at least clear the mud gathering close to the highway. It is a major threat to commuters and may lead to further degradation of the road. This is supposed to be a two-lane highway, but in most sections, debris has reduced it to a single lane," said a resident of Poma village.

The highway was designed to be the first two-lane state road of Arunachal with a formation width of 12 meters and a carriageway width of 7 meters. The project includes the widening of 17.4 km, an embankment of 2.6 km, almost 12 km of pucca drains, and a 926-meter-long protection wall. When this project was initiated, T. Kamsi, the then Superintending Engineer and now retired Chief Engineer of PWD (WZ), described it as a "national standard two-lane highway".

However, residents from Sangdupota Circle have often questioned the quality of construction. "The road could not even weather one monsoon. How can we expect it to last? The state government must reconsider the project. It is our first state highway, and we had high hopes of even more because Chief Minister Pema Khandu was personally monitoring the work," said a resident of Jote.

The road is thus crucial as a lifeline connecting most of the Sangdupota Circle in the Papum Pare district. It also connects major institutions like the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Jote, Government Law College (Jote), and Film and Television Institute (FTI) Jote, which depend on the route to access the institutions.

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