On Road In North East India-8

35 days travel covering 3,0 00 km plus in the lap of oranges, pineapple, kiwi, apple, ginger, turmeric, black pepper, large cardamom and enthuriam-growing Arunachal Pradesh in multi-modal format.

Heard of Tezu? Roing? Passighat? Pangin? Ziro? Sissen? Potin? Dirang? Rupa? Shergaon? Bomdila? Bleak chances. I can assert, almost zero recognition. No, they are not fictional towns  like R K Narayan’s “Malgudi”.

These names are real. And towns in Arunachal Pradesh. Maybe Bomdila is recognizable due to its proximity to Tawang, the globally renowned  tourist spot in Arunachal Pradesh on the Bhutanese-Chinese border. Even I was unaware of these places until a month ago.

The decision to explore north east is actually a reaction to the acerbic comment from a senior bureaucrat in Delhi who expressed disappointment sometime back that my book, 10,000 KM on Indian Highways has no mention  of roads or highways in northeast consisting of seven sisters viz., Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh. 

The main character in Paul Coelho’s celebrated work, Alchemist, claims that never stop dreaming. Actually, it will happen because unknown external forces will help you realize those dreams. Yes, I kept dreaming about travelling in north east because I had never crossed Kolkota in the east. I had worked with several colleagues from northeast. The only challenge was to look for an opportunity to visit which was not happening.

Out of the blue, I get inducted as Member of the newly constituted National Committee on Supply Chain and Logistics under the Ministry of Agriculture with the focus on studying the prevailing post-harvest marketing infrastructure across India and suggest measures to improve farmers’ marketing pangs. And, I suggested exploring the north eastern states to begin with and the rest, as they say, is history.

When I sat down to draw the itinerary with Google, a 30-day, 7-state whirlwind tour of four days each for each state emerged and I was happy. But it turned out to be a damp squib because I believed in the existence of normal road infrastructure in the north east. Due to some other planning glitches, my plan got derailed in the sense that I could not realize what I dreamt about. Instead of traversing through seven states, I managed to do just one state viz., Arunachal Pradesh over a period of 20 days after the first 10 days in Assam.

Well, the travel through Assam – from Guwahati to Tinsukia via National Highway 37 – was in a truck carrying Hyundai cars to its dealer over three days. Approximately 580 km, the trip consumed. Never ever seen such a green-layered landscape: tea gardens and fields most of the time. Very little industrial activity was noticed. More about the NH37 experience in another dispatch. Now back to Arunachal Pradesh.

Arunachal Pradesh visit became the only choice for two reasons: one, getting an Inner Line Permit (ILP), introduced by the British to protect the innocent tribes of north east frontier from people from the plains, was easy, thanks to the good offices of Mr Narang Tani, Deputy Director (Marketing) in the Government of Arunachal Pradesh, compared to procuring ILP from Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland. There is no need for ILP to travel in Meghalaya and Tripura and Assam. Secondly, having moved to the eastern most part of Assam viz., Tinsukia, crossing into Arunachal Pradesh made more sense than returning to Guwahati for a detour to Meghalaya and Tripura.

Interacting with Assamese friends in Tinsukia, revealed that Tezu is the nearest Arunachal Pradesh town in Lohit district. Then I began looking for a transporter who can accommodate me in a truck. It did not materialize. What is the next alternative route? It has to be in Tata Sumo/Tata Winger or Arunachal Pradesh State Transport buses. “If you are looking for quicker travel, take Tata Winger,” said someone. Bus will take a long circuitous route via Parashuram Kund and the journey time will be over 12 hours whereas Tata Sumo ride will be half of that. Why? “Don’t you know, Arunachal does not have good roads? Tata Sumo cuts short travel time by crossing the Mighty Brahmaputra (or known as Mighty Siang river in Arunachal Pradesh) in barge,” clarified a booking agent outside Tinsukia bus stand. Wow, multimodal! I opted for Tata Sumo obviously.

It was again NH 37 towards east for an hour or so in the packed Tata Winger. Then you take a right turn at the railway crossing closer to Rupai Siding Railway Station. Between Tinsukia and this siding, NH 37 was two lane and narrow with several towns at frequent intervals including Doom Dooma, famous for its tea gardens. Once, I moved onto NH 52, a highway maintained by Border Road Organisation (a creation of government of India post-India-China 1962 war, the ride was incredible. Well maintained and cared for truly. Crossing into Arunachal Pradesh happened at Dhirak crossing with the Indian Army checking vehicle papers. Nobody asked for my ILP at Dhirak! My tension was unwarranted, I felt. But every other place, ILP was asked for at border crossing,as I stood out as an odd man out in the midst of Arunachalis with Mangoliad features.

Till Namsai T junction, the ride was superb. Then the nightmare began. BRO is relaying or building a new road. It was like moving on a motorized rocking chair. “A lady in labour will deliver within a few minutes of travel on this stretch,” is how a fellow passenger put it. Spot on. You drove for 2 hours in such condition and am sure the wear and tear of the vehicle would be phenomenal warranting regular overhauling. The September 2012 floods was believed to be the cause for such utter damage to whatever little Arunachal Pradesh could have been proud of. Broken bridges – there were many over streams and rivulets – meant, drive down onto the dry river bed and the climb up to move on the non-existent road. Yes, it was NH 52! Of course, repair work is in progress.

But the risk of taking Tata Winger route instead of State Transport bus was rewarding and exhilarating. Otherwise I would have missed the spectacle of driving on the river beds and watching the setting down of Sun on the Mighty Lohit River and crossing in a barge with three Tata Sumos as my travelling companion! Well, this was not the only time for river-crossing in motorized and non-motorized barges. Over the next three weeks, I did cross the great river multiple times as part of my multimodal passage through Arunachal Pradesh.

It was a wise move I realized later. Commissioner Hage Kojeen (IAS) at Ita Nagar, Arunachal Pradesh’s capital, remarked as I was about to take leave of him before leaving Bomdila, 300 km away for my last three days halt for interaction with kiwi and apple growers at 8000 feet above sea level there: “When I got a call in October end saying that you’re coming to Northeast and plans to travel in trucks in Arunachal Pradesh, I wondered what kind of joke is this. How can someone travel in a truck in our state where roads or highways are yet to come up!”

My philosophy is simple: if it is there, experience it. If it is not there also, experience the absence of it!

The writer is the author of 10,000 KM on Indian Highways and Member, National Committee on Supply Chain & Logistics, Government of India. His second book,  Naked Banana! -  a compilation of his recent writings, is out now.