After several hiccups from rows over land acquisition to multi-crore compensation scams and suspension of senior officials, the strategic 1,824-km-long Arunachal Frontier Highway (NH 913) along the McMahon Line is finally on track with the Centre clearing almost all hurdles and readying for significant construction activity days from now, officials in the know told ET.
A major pain point now stands largely resolved — the 125-km Lada to Sarli high-altitude highway alignment in East Kameng district, sources said. This segment ran into serious controversy over land acquisition, compensation computation and allegations of siphoning of funds, delaying the project and drawing in the Anti-Corruption Bureau to finally an inter-ministerial committee.
A key central intervention followed involving an administrative revamp and setting up of an independent new ground verification committee manned by officials from other districts to re-assess the compensation entitlement.
The result: The final compensation outgo came down from nearly ₹250 crore to ₹185 crore. It is learnt to have been accepted, clearing the way for full land acquisition which has now been done, officials in the know told ET. The Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MORTH) has moved fast with a private firm recently winning the tender to get moving on Lada-Sarli.
There is, however, more to ensuring that the crucial frontier highway stays firmly on track. Conceptualised in 2016, the project to link Bomdila in West Kameng district to Vijaynagar in Changlang district along the Indo-Bhutan and Indo-Myanmar borders, has been progressing slowly amid challenges apart from serious terrain and logistical constraints. The Centre is looking at a 2029 deadline for project completion, and several gear shifts are aimed at achieving that.
If Lada-Sarli is an example, the second is how packages under the ambitious project are now gradually being shifted to the National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd (NHIDCL) and Border Roads Organisation (BRO), minimising state PWD role after the land compensation episode. The idea is to ensure uniform road quality along the two-lane highway and minimise undesirable interferences which may impact project pace, officials in the know held. There is also the debatable forest clearance issue for the highway that is to run deep through the forests.The state government, on the back of the Forest Conservation Amendment Act of 2023 which exempted strategic linear projects within 100 km of the Line of Control (LoC) and Line of Actual Control (LAC) from prior central clearance, is learnt to have granted forest clearance to the Frontier highway within a week’s time, as per those in the know.
The National Board of Wildlife (NBWL) also granted permission in 2025 for diversion of 310 hectares of forest land from Namdapha tiger reserve for the highway, citing strategic interests.
With segments of the Frontier Highway running parallel to China’s G 219- (Xinjiang-Tibet highway), and as close as 20 km to the LAC, it is, in fact, a strategic interest that is central to the project.
India, through NH 913, seeks to build strategic capability and connectivity in an area with high infrastructure buildup on the Chinese side. The project is key to enabling rapid movement of defence forces through Arunachal Pradesh.
It will also supplement and link up with the existing Trans-Arunachal Highways and the Arunachal East-West corridor in the southern part of the state with six vertical and diagonal national highway corridors envisaged to ensure all-round connectivity to the state and its north-eastern neighbours.