How To Reach Mechuka

A small town nestled roughly 6,000 ft above the sea level in Arunachal Pradesh’s Shi-Yomi District, Mechuka is located in a forested valley and encompassed by thorn bushes & pine trees. An offbeat tourist destination that’s gaining popularity rapidly these days, owing to its picturesque sights, snow-capped valleys, the Siyom River and exotic tribes, Mechuka is situated 180km from Along on the northwest and about 29km from the Indo-Chinese Border. Since there’s no airport or train station in and around Mechuka which is closely accessible, the best way to reach here is via a road trip. Mechuka’s rather well connected through shared transportation with Aalo/Along.

The closest airport to Mechuka is in Lilabari, or Mohanbari (Dibrugarh) in Assam and International Airport in Guwahati. There’s also a helicopter service under the UDAAN scheme twice a week to Mechuka (Saturday and Monday). One of the fastest and best ways of reaching Mechuka is to fly and then make the onward journey via road which takes roughly 13 hours if you’re traveling from New Delhi. There’s a flight from New Delhi to Dibrugarh which takes a travel time of about 2 ½ hours and costs approx. INR 4,500-8,500. On arrival at Dibrugarh, you can travel by car to Mechuka, which would entail another 9 hours’ travel time and cost roughly INR 6,500 for car rental.

Located 180km from Aalo, another significant tourist destination in A.P., Mechuka’s nearest rail station is in Silapathar about 390km away or in Naharlagun in Arunachal Pradesh. If you’re traveling from New Delhi, there’s a train to Naharlagun twice a week from Anand Vihar Train Station which takes about 38 hours to reach and costs about INR 950. On arrival at Naharlagun, you can then make the onward journey to Mechuka by road, which is roughly 7 hours and 45 minutes.

Road connectivity to Mechuka’s mostly via the West Siang District and Aalo, the district HQ is the entry access to Mechuka, as also connected to AP’s capital city Itanagar. You can reach Aalo by private sumo taxi services, bus or private car hires. While from Itanagar, there are two routes to access Aalo, one being through Pasighat and another through Silapathar, it is best to travel via the Pasighat route. If you’re traveling from Guwahati, the road distance is roughly 817km and you’d find bus services both from Guwahati and Itanagar for Aalo. From Aalo you would find it easier to hire a Sumo Cab to Mechuka.

With limited bus connectivity in and around Mechuka, to get around easily, it is best to hire a sumo taxi for private use or use shared sumo to get around Mechuka and close to neighboring areas.