Pema Khandu, the Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh, has been in the news lately for his recent bike ride on a Royal Enfield Interceptor 650 from Arunachal Pradesh’s Yingkiyong to Pasighat. The pictures of him riding the Interceptor has surfaced on his Facebook page. The Yingkiong to Pasighat route is a 122km route with proper tarmac and it offers some of the best picturesque views of the place. He went on this bike trip in order to promote tourism in the state. He also states that this is the best time for bikers to visit Arunachal Pradesh in his post.
Pema Khandu is an Indian politician and the Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh. Previously he had served as Minister of Tourism, Urban Development and Water Resources in Nabam Tuki’s government. Since assuming office of chief minister in July 2016, he and his government have twice changed their party affiliation; in September from the Indian National Congress to the Peoples Party of Arunachal, and then in December 2016 to the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Coming back to the bike, the Interceptor 650 is a great touring bike.It was launched in India last year and is currently India’s most affordable twin cylinder bike. It has quickly become India’s best selling twin cylinder engined motorcycle, along with its sibling – the Continental GT 650 cafe racer.
The Interceptor 650 is powered by a new 647 cc, fuel-injected, oil and air cooled, parallel twin-cylinder engine producing a maximum of 47 Bhp and 52 Nm of torque. It’s paired with a 6 speed manual gearbox that gets a slipper clutch and comes with telescopic front forks, dual gas charged rear shock absorbers, disc brakes on both wheels, tube-type tyres and dual channel ABS. The Interceptor 650’s prices start at Rs 2.37 lakhs ex-showroom.
This is not the first time Arunachal CM was spotted on a Royal Enfield. In the past he has been seen riding a Royal Enfield Classic 350 which proves that he definitely has a soft corner for bikes and looks like he’s more of a bike guy than cars. This is not one of kind of campaign that Mr. Khandu has done. In the past, one of the famous face of the spiritual world, Sadhguru, had also done something similar. He chose to ride a customised Honda VFR adventure bike for a 3,500 km long ride to revitalise Cauvery river. The bike rally also targets to plant more than 242 crore trees in the basin. The campaign is called ‘Cauvery calling’. He has done similar acts before on a Mercedes-Benz G63 AMG as well.
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