Let’s help you
plan your journey
Explore responsibly, discover offbeat places, guided by locals, rooted in culture.
Let’s help you
plan your journey
Explore responsibly, discover offbeat places, guided by locals, rooted in culture.
Soumen Bhowmick
Soumen Bhowmick founded Pollen Dots in 2024 to plan journeys across India and Bhutan. He works in the Commercial Department of Indian Railways, where he has been since 2000. From 2016 to 2020 he was Head of Business Development and Partnerships at ScoutMyTrip, a community-driven road trip planning platform. There he built a nationwide network of local Scouts who helped travellers on the road, and grew the Road Trippers Club to 16 Indian cities. As a core member of Devil On Wheels, he helped travellers plan Himalayan trips and started Spreading Smiles. He has driven solo from Arunachal to Goa and from Himachal to Karnataka, and has run his own caravan for more than ten years. His photographs have won national and international salon awards, and his writing has appeared in Outlook Traveller.
A trip to Arunachal Pradesh needs an Inner Line Permit, and the permit binds Indian citizens rather than foreign nationals. Foreign nationals need a Protected Area Permit instead, and in neighbouring Sikkim the same words, Inner Line Permit, name the document that binds them. Plan around the permit, the months when the roads are open, the Sela crossing, and how far apart Namdapha and Tawang really are.
Four states ask Indian citizens for a permit at the border and this is one of them. The permit is cheap and quick, and plans come apart when it is treated as optional. The guide to preparing for travelling in India covers the general case, and this one covers the permit and the distances.
October to April is the long usable window, and it splits in two. The monsoon in between is heavy and the roads are the first thing it takes out.
Indian citizens from outside the state need an Inner Line Permit to enter. It is checked at the gates on the Assam and Nagaland borders.
A foreign passport does not take an Inner Line Permit here. It takes a Protected Area Permit, which is a different instrument with different rules.
Most arrivals still come through Assam. The state has its own airports now and they serve the valley towns rather than the high ones.
Namdapha alone runs from 200 metres to 4,571 metres. The state as a whole holds both, and the two ends are days apart.
Seven to nine days covers one corridor. The state is too large for two in one trip.
A plan made without the permit lead time is the one that comes apart here, because the Indian citizen's permit and the foreign national's are issued by different authorities on different timescales. Our ten day Northeast India expedition is the only journey we run that enters a state with this permit. Customised tours is where the permits, the corridor and the driving days get settled together.
Yes. Indian citizens from outside the state need an Inner Line Permit to enter, and it is checked at the gates on the Assam and Nagaland borders. A temporary visitor's permit is valid for fifteen days and can be extended. Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram and Manipur are the four states that work this way.
Through the state's own permit portal, with an identity document and a photograph uploaded against the application. It can also be done in person at any Deputy Commissioner's office in the state. Carry a printed copy to the gate, because the phone signal there is not reliable.
Yes, on a Protected Area Permit rather than an Inner Line Permit. It is issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs or an authority it has delegated to. It is applied for through a registered tour operator, with the itinerary named in advance, and it usually requires travelling in a group. Allow weeks rather than days.
October to November for clear air and open roads, or December to February for the Tawang side in the cold. March and April bring the rhododendrons. Avoid May to September, when the monsoon takes out the roads. Namdapha and the low forests are best from November to March.
It was built as an all weather route and it opened on 9 March 2024. It sits at about 3,960 metres, roughly 240 metres below Sela Pass, which puts it below the snow line. Tawang therefore stays reachable in winter, when the pass road above it is blocked.
Seven to nine days covers one corridor properly. Three days does Itanagar and Ziro. Seven covers the Tawang corridor from Tezpur, and nine adds Ziro on the way back. The eastern side needs eight on its own, and Namdapha about ten.