The Arunachal Pradesh government's maiden flight from Guwahati to Mechuka Valley went awry on Sunday due bad weather and poor visibility. Though northeastern air service provider NE Shuttle's 18-seater Dornier aircraft left Guwahati's Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport, had to return after hovering over the Mechuka airstrip for sometime.

The aircraft will again leave for Mechuka with tourists from the city on Wednesday as per a report in TOI. "The weather was so bad that the landing strip was not visible. The response from tourists for the air service is encouraging and we are now looking forward to Wednesday's flight," P N Nepali, captain of the aircraft, said. 

The Arunachal government launched the commercial flight service to Mechuka - a picturesque valley barely 29km from the Indo-China border - to promote the place as a tourism destination. State tourism director A K Singh said that the government has a proposal for starting a high-altitude golf course in the valley as part of the project. "The valley offers one of the most breathtaking scenery in Arunachal Pradesh. We have already set up tourism infrastructure at Mechuka and now we are looking to start a high-altitude golf course there," he said.

Located in West Siang district, Mechuka is one of the unexplored scenic spots in the state and has become the second tourism spots located close to Mac Mohan line after Bum La at 14,000 feet in Tawang district. At an altitude of about 6,000 feet, Mechuka, nestled under the snow-capped eastern Himalayas, is home to the Buddhist Memba tribe. Mechuka is also dotted with many Buddhist remains and is the home to the 400-year-old Samten Yongcha monastery, a contemporary of the much-revered Tawang monastery.