Title - Landslides disrupt rail services to Northeast

Silchar (Assam)/Agartala : Rail services between southern Assam, Tripura, Manipur and Mizoram and the rest of India have been suspended since Sunday following heavy landslides on railway tracks, a Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) official said Monday.

"Railway workers led by senior officials have been trying to clear the debris at many places in southern Assam's Dima-Hasao Hills district. The huge mud slides covering more than 150 metres of rail track near Harangajao-Mailongdisa are being cleared," an NFR spokesperson told reporters at Silchar.

"The incessant rains, which began Saturday, held up work at the clearing sites," informed the official, adding that it would take at least a week to clear the debris and make way for trains.

After incessant rains affected railway tracks, the NF Railway cancelled many trains on the Lumding-Badarpur Hill section that connects Guwahati with southern Assam, Tripura, Manipur and Mizoram.

The Tripura government has asked NFR authorities to work round-the-clock to clear the debris and to normalise railway services at the earliest. It has also requested the Food Corporation of India (FCI) to build a buffer stock of rice and other essential commodities for the north eastern state within the next fortnight, before the monsoon intensifies in the region.

"Tripura Food and Civil Supplies Minister Manik Dey has in separate letters requested the FCI and union ministry of food and civil supplies to ensure immediate stocks of essentials, specially rice," an official of the Tripura Food and Civil Supplies department told