Vijaynagar, Changlang


Vijaynagar is the remotest tehsil of Changlang district in the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh of India. Originally known as Dawodi by the Lisu people, but officially named as Vijaynagar. It is a cluster of 16 villages on the border with Myanmar, by foot from the nearest motorable road in India.
At the 2011 census, Vijaynagar's population was 4,438. The Lisu people are the native inhabitants of the valley and in May 1961 Assam Rifles soldiers and their families, mostly Gorkhas, were settled in this border tehsil for strategic reasons.

Location

Vijaynagar is surrounded on three sides by Myanmar, while the other side abuts the thick forest of the Namdapha National Park. Nearby cities are Miao, Hayuliang and Tezu in India. Putao is the nearest city in Myanmar.

Transportation

Vijaynagar is reached by air, using the Vijaynagar Airport. This is the 8th ALG in Arunachal Pradesh upgraded by the Indian Airforce and Indian Army in September 2019 to allow the landing of fighter jets and large transport planes. The upgrade involved building local link roads among villages around Vijaynagar.
A road connection to Miao, costing ₹225 crores, was dedicated in February 2013 but has been delayed by environmental activists concerned about the National Park. They were accommodated by adding a prefabricated bridge to protect the park life and facilitate monitoring by the Forests Department. In September 2019, the Governor of Arunachal Pradesh ordered expedited construction by first completing the central bridge pier, already being built in Kolkata. There are plans to extend this road to Putao Airport in Myanmar under the Look East policy, thus connecting it to both India's and Myanmar's national highway networks.
Vijaynagar would be the eastern terminus of the Arunachal Pradesh Frontier Highway, a proposed road following the McMahon Line to Mago and Thingbu in the west. A map of the proposed route can be seen and .