Title - Ghost of Hunger hovers over Broken NE Rail link

Ten days have passed since train services between Tripura, Manipur and Mizoram, and also South Assam were suspended following heavy landslides. If there is no further delay due to heavy rain it is hoped that skeleton services could be resumed by Tuesday.

Railway services were suspended in the region on June 1 following heavy landslides and damage to tracks due to torrential rains between Harangajao-Mailongdisa stations in southern Assam’s Dima Hasao district.

Rainfall, landslides can mean food, fuel shortage

“We are trying to resume both passenger and goods train services between Tripura, Manipur, Mizoram and southern Assam and the rest of India within the next three days,” a Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) spokesperson said at Silchar.

Engineers and railway workers of NFR’s Lumding division are working round-the-clock to clear the debris at many places in southern Assam’s Dima Hasao district. Huge mudslides covering more than 150 metres of rail track have been cleared. Senior NFR official are camping in the area, 300 km south of Guwahati, to supervise the restoration works.

The metre gauge (chhoti line) from Guwahati passes through Dima Hasao district (formerly North Cachar Hills district) connecting landlocked Tripura’s capital Agartala and parts of Manipur and Mizoram with the rest of India.

Ghost of 2010 : File photo Memories of  June-July 2010 haunt, when the vital route was blocked for 34 days after a 300-metre track between Harangajao and Mailongdisa, 78 km from southern Assam’s main city Silchar, was wrecked by heavy landslides.

Stock up supplies, says Tripura govt.

Administrators in Tripura are worried that food and essential commodities will fall short in the towns being linked by the rail track. The northeast region is already facing a short supply of cooking gas. The Tripura government has asked NFR authorities to work round-the-clock to clear the debris and normalise railway services at the earliest. It has urged the Food Corporation of India (FCI) to build a buffer stock of rice and other essential commodities for the state within the next fortnight, before the monsoon rain intensifies in the region.

“The work to fully repair the tracks is on,” the NFR official said, adding that the first priority was to run goods trains to urgently meet the food and fuel demand. “An engine and four bogies of a goods train were derailed late Saturday night when the loaded train was running on a trial basis through the renovated railway track. Additional workers were deployed to regularise the rail services,” the official said.