NE states cut-off from rest of India through railway as rain, landslides hits railway tracks

Several northeastern states – Tripura, Manipur, Mizoram and southern Assam – remained cut off from the rest of the country by railways since Tuesday as the railway tracks were waterlogged and damaged after landslides triggered by incessant rain in the aftermath of cyclone Remal, officials said on Wednesday. 

A Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) official said that railway tracks were damaged, water logged due to heavy rains and submerged by landslides in at least ten places between New Haflong - Bandarkhal section under Lumding division in southern Assam’s Dima Hasao district.

The mountainous Dima Hasao district is a connecting route to south Assam, Tripura, Manipur, and Mizoram.

“Our engineers and workers are working round-the-clock to restore the rail services but heavy rain and adverse weather conditions badly affected the restoration work,” the NFR official told.

He said that until the rain stopped full-fledged work could not be started.

The NFR since Tuesday cancelled a large number of express, passenger and goods trains bound for south Assam, Tripura, Manipur, and Mizoram.

According to the NFR official, passenger and goods train services have been affected in the region for several weeks since April 25 owing to heavy landslides causing damage to railway tracks in the Jatinga Lumpur-New Harangajao section under Lumding division after heavy rains lashed the mountainous Dima Hasao district.

Considering the weak railway tracks and soil in the region, the NFR recently operated a limited number of trains in the daytime on the hilly route, besides regulating long-distance and express trains.

Due to the disruptions in the railway services caused a huge crisis of transport fuel -- petrol and diesel – and other essential goods in southern Assam, Tripura, Mizoram and Manipur.

Due to the heavy rain and landslides highway connectivity was also affected in south Assam, Tripura, Manipur, and Mizoram, which are heavily dependent on the fuel supply, essential items, food grains and other commodities on the other states.