Train services partially restored in parts of NE after week-long disruption

After a week of disruption due to landslides, the train services between South Assam, Tripura, Manipur, and Mizoram and the rest of the country via Guwahati partially resumed on Sunday, officials said. 

The train services in the Lumding-Badarpur Hill Section of the Lumding division have been disrupted since June 23 after huge landslides badly affected the railway track in the mountainous areas under Assam's Dima Hasao district.

Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) Kapinjal Kishore Sharma said on Sunday that the first goods train and the first passenger train (Kanchenjunga Express) crossed the landslide-affected location at Jatinga Lampur after restoration of the affected railway tracks.

The movement of the trains over the affected portion in Lumpur-New Haflong was partially restored from Sunday and full-fledged train services are expected to resume from Monday, he said.

Goods trains carrying petroleum products and food grains bound for the state of Tripura and the Barak Valley in southern Assam were prioritised for movement over the section.

Additionally, a POL wagon currently stranded at Guwahati and scheduled for unloading at Dharmanagar in northern Tripura is also being dispatched, the official said.

Sharma said that some portion of the Lumding-Badarpur hill section under Assam's Dima Hasao district was severely affected by multiple earth slips triggered by heavy rainfall.

NFR General Manager Chetan Kumar Shrivastava visited the site to assess the ground situation, review restoration progress and encourage the field teams.

He instructed that maximum manpower and machinery be deployed to accelerate the restoration efforts and ensure early resumption of train services on this vital hill section.

Due to the effect of the railway tracks, the NFR has cancelled, diverted and short-terminated many trains scheduled to operate in these areas.

During monsoon, every year several northeastern states, especially Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur and southern Assam, remain cut off from the rest of the country for weeks owing to landslides, waterlogging and damage to railway tracks, leading to hardship for the people of the region.