Title - Day 3: 2,500 Train Passengers Still Stranded in Assam

Guwahati/Agartala : Over 2,500 passengers in four trains continued to be stranded for the third day Thursday as heavy landslides following heavy rains blocked tracks and cut off parts of southern Assam.The trains have been stuck at three places on a single metre-gauge rail line in Assam's Dima Hasao district since Tuesday.According to railway and state government officials, train services and road links between Tripura, Manipur, Mizoram, parts of Meghalaya as also southern Assam and the rest of India have remained cut off since Tuesday.The landslides at about 90 places, following incessant rains, have damaged roads, railway tracks and bridges in Dima Hasao, about 300 km from Assam's main city Guwahati."Army soldiers, railway and state government officials and workers, GREF (General Reserve Engineering Force) personnel and local people have been working round-the-clock to restore roads and railway communications," a spokesperson of the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) told IANS."The Assam government and NFR authorities have been trying to make an alternative road on an emergency basis in Dima Hasao district to rescue the stranded railway passengers," Tripura transport department secretary Kishore Ambuly told reporters in Agartala.District authorities have been providing all help, including food, water and medical teams, to the stranded passengers at the several locations, officials said.

The metre-gauge railway line from Guwahati passes through Dima Hasao district, connecting Tripura's capital Agartala and parts of Manipur and Mizoram with the rest of India.

With the suspension of train services, supply of essential commodities and food grain has been severely hit in the region, sending prices soaring.

According to Ambuly, the situation has been aggravated following huge mudslides in many places on the highways connecting Assam to Agartala and other national highways.

"It is uncertain when the railway and roadway communications would be restored in the region. Authorities involved in these works are seriously trying to restore the communications within a week," an official said.

The GREF, under the Border Roads Organisation of the ministry of shipping, road transport and highways, looks after the national highways in the border areas.

"The Tripura food and civil supplies department has in separate letters requested the FCI (Food Corporation of India) and the union ministry of food and civil supplies to ensure immediate stocks of essentials, specially rice," an official of the Tripura government told IANS.

In June-July 2010, railway traffic was disrupted for 34 days after a 300-metre track between Harangajao and Mailongdisa, 78 km from southern Assam's main city Silchar, was washed away due to a heavy landslides.