Title - Train service in hill section resumes after 33 days

SILCHAR: Train services in the Lumding-Silchar section of North-east Frontier Railway is set to resume on Sunday after a gap of 33 days.Landslips caused by torrential rain in nearly 100 places along the route caused disruption of train service since June 26, causing extreme sufferings to people of this region. A spokesman of NF Railway said 15691 Dn/15692 Up Lumding - Silchar - Lumding Cachar Express and 15695 Dn Lumding - Agartala Express will resume service from Sunday. The 15693 Dn/15694 Up Lumding - Silchar Barak Valley Express and 15696 Up Agartala - Lumding Express will resume service from Monday. Partial train services between Lumding and Lower Halflong was resumed on July 25 with the running of Hill Queen Express.With this, the existing service of UP/DN passenger special train running between Badarpur & Harangajao will be withdrawn from Monday, the spokesman added.Southern Assam, Tripura, Mizoram and parts of Manipur are cut off in terms of railway connectivity from the rest of the country for over a month due to landslides in 91 odd places along the 171 km-stretch between Mandardisa and Damcherra stations on the Lumding-Silchar section. Over 3,000 passengers were stranded in different stations and they were later evacuated gradually.Landslide in the Lumding-Silchar section, which runs through the Borail hill range, is a common phenomenon during the monsoon. In 2010, the route was closed for railway traffic for 34 days after a 300 metre track between Harangajao and Maliongdisa was washed away in landslides. In 2004, the route was closed for four months due to landslips.

The NH-6, connecting the region with Guwahati, is also not reliable during rains as areas in Meghalaya are prone to frequent landslides.