Click to play videoNew Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh begins a crucial two-day visit to Arunachal Pradesh on Thursday.
High-level Government sources told CNN-IBN that the Prime Minister will unveil a mega financial package with the focus on transforming Arunachal's moonscape infrastructure.
A network of all-weather two-lane roads and highways will link up 16 key towns in the state from Tawang and Bomdila in the west to Yingkiong and Anini in the north extending upto Hawai in the sensitive Walong sector. The estimated cost is believed to be running into thousands of crore rupees.
The Prime Minister will be accompanied by Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor whose troops struggle every day with inhospitable weather conditions, poor communication and roads that get washed away with every rain in the tough terrain.
“We all realise that if you want to develop you have to it militarily. For development of local areas roads are necessary, you cannot start without roads,” Major General Dalbir Singh said.
Manmohan Singh will inaugurate a 110-mega watt hydel project outside the state capital Itanagar and at a public rally later on Thursday he is expected to announce funds for projects that have remained unfinished for years in the state.
He will also lay the foundation stone for a permanent complex of the state assembly and civil secretariat.
Singh's visit is not without its political currents. It takes place just two weeks since his return from Beijing and although Tawang is not on the itinerary, the financial package is expected to address the Army's concerns about border infrastructure in that district and other sectors where China's shadow looms large.
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