Arunachal Frontier Highway, officially notified as the National Highway-913 and also called Bomdila-Vijaynagar Highway, connecting Bomdila in northwest to Vijaynagar in southeast including 800 km greenfield section and network of new tunnels & bridges, is mostly lntermediate-lane (5.5 m or 18 ft) and in some sections 2-lane paved-shoulder under-construction national highway along the India-Tibet border in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. The highway itself will cost and total cost including 6 additional inter-corridors is .
In some places, this highway will run as close as 20 km from the LAC. To be constructed by MoRTH in 9 packages, all packages will be approved by the end of FY 2024-25 (March 2025) and construction will be completed in 2 years by 31 March 2027. Of the total route, 800km is greenfield, rest brownfield will be upgraded and tunnels will be built. This highway in the north & east Arunachal along the China border would complement the Trans-Arunachal Highway (through the middle of Arunachal) and the Arunachal East-West Corridor (in south Arunachal in foothills along the Assam border) as major highways spanning the whole state, pursuing the Look East connectivity policy.
In 2016, empowered committee on border infrastructure asked the MoRTH to prepare the detailed project reports (DPR) as per the alignment agreed by the home ministry, defence ministry & Arunachal state government. In 2018, Home ministry enhanced the alignment for the additional connectivity. MoRTH identifies the highway as one of the 29 corridors close to the 3,600 km international border, to be undertaken as a NHDP (which has been subsumed by the Bharatmala project), though there is "little habitation" along the proposed route and only "small stretches of minor roads".
It will be constructed in the following nine packages, all approvals and land acquisition will be progressively completed by March 2025, and the construction will be progressively completed by March 2027 in fully government-funded "engineering procure and construct" (EPC) mode.
Various sources in the Government of India and media have mentioned the following reasons to build the highway:
India's National Board for Wildlife approved diversion of 310 hectares of Namdapha National Park - habitat for tigers (India is home to 76% of world's tiger population), clouded leopards, and red pandas (only panda species in India) - forest land for this highway for boosting state's remotest habitation's socio-economic development. The wildlife protection is a major consideration for the project, and to ensure the wildlife movement corridors are not disrupted by the highway the wildlife passage culverts and underpasses customised to the site-specific data-backed research have been constructed. The highway will also cross the Dibang Wildlife Sanctuary.
The high-altitude highway will originate from Mago-Thingbu in Tawang district and meander through the following border areas of Arunachal Pradesh along the McMahon Line: West Kameng district; East Kameng district; Upper Subansiri district; Mechuka in West Siang district; Tuting in Upper Siang district; Dibang Valley district; Desali in Lower Dibang Valley district; Chaglagam, Kibithu, Dong and Hawai all in Anjaw district; and end at Vijaynagar in Changlang district at the junction of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Nagaland and Myanmar. The map of alignment can be seen here.
Alignment by district, from west to east:
To providing missing interconnectivity between three horizontal national highways across Arunachal Pradesh - Frontier Highway, Trans-Arunachal Highway and East-West Industrial Corridor Highway - following six vertical and diagonal national highway corridors of total 2178 km length will be built, which will also provide faster access to geostrategically important areas on India-China LAC.
Listed west to east and within that south to north.
Runs along Thelamara-Tawang-Nelia for 402 km.
Runs along Itakhola-Pakke-Kessang-Seppa-Parsi Parlo for 391 km.
Runs along Gogamukh-Taliha-Tato for 285 km.
Runs along Akajan-Jorging-Pango for 398 km.
Runs along Pasighat-Bishing for 298 km.
Runs along Kanubari-Longding for 404 km.
Listed west to east.
Tawang-Yongphulla Highway spur, proposed as a 100 km long western spur from Tawang to Yongphulla Airport in Bhutan (upgraded by India and jointly used by the Indian Army and Bhutan Army) in eastern Bhutan via Lumla-Yabab in India and Trashigang in Bhutan.
Miao-Kharsang Highway spur is likely awaiting approval as the National Highway, though state-level lower-status connectivity plan may exist (Nov 2025 update).
Under the Vibrant Villages Programme, feeder roads to 122 border villages in Arunachal, at the cost of â¹2,205 crore, are being constructed which will connect to the Arunachal Frontier Highway. This budget also includes community centers and public infrastructure in those villages along the India-Tibet border to empower the villagers.
Arunachal Frontier Highway will intersect with the:
See East-West Industrial Corridor Highway in the foothills of Arunachal Pradesh from Bhairabkunda, the tri-junction of Bhutan, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh to Ruksin in East Siang district.
Arunachal Frontier Highway will also connect with the proposed Brahmaputra Expressway, running largely through Assam along the Brahmaputra River.
The status of suprs is as follows: