After restoration of the damaged railway track in Assam’s Lumding-Badarpur Hill Section, by the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) engineers and workers, who are working on a war footing manner to fully repair the damaged railway track, two fuel loaded (petrol and diesel) railway wagons reached Dharmanagar depot of Tripura on Wednesday afternoon.

Giving details, additional secretary and director of Food and Civil Supplies department, Sumit Lodh said that  after restoration of damaged railway  track in Assam’s Lumding-Badarpur Hill Section, the Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) and NFR runs two fuel loaded wagons towards Dharmanagar depot of Tripura and in the evening unloading of fuel have also been started.

He said that on Thursday morning, he will join in a video conferencing with the officials of IOCL over the transportation of fuel across outlets in Tripura. After ensuring the available supply of both petrol and diesel, the government will take fresh decisions on the rationing system of petrol across Tripura, said Lodh and hoped that from Thursday evening , the normal supply of all fuel products will again resume.

Though, at present Tripura has fuel stock for next 8 to 9 days and there is no situation for panic.

Food and Civil Supplies Minister Sushanta Chowdhury through a social media post also hoped from Thursday night, the supply of fuel will be normal across Tripura as two fuel loaded railway wagons have already arrived in the state.

While, on Wednesday the majority of the fuel outlets across Agartala remained dry and only few of them supplied petrol through rationing systems, where long queues of motorbike riders were seen in the city.

It may be recalled here that with an apprehension of possible crisis of petrol, Tripura government has imposed rationing system with effect from last Sunday (November 10) across Tripura after supply of essential commodities, food grains, and transport fuel have been disrupted as the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) engineers and workers are repairing the damage to the railway track in Assam’s Lumding-Badarpur Hill Section, where a loaded goods train wagon derailed on November 3rd last. 

The Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs department through a order on Saturday said that ‘in view of the supply constraint petrol in the state following disruption of goods train service in Lumding-Badarpur section of NFR coupled with poor condition of the NH-8, it has been decided to impose restriction on sale of petrol by the fuel outlets.”

As per the rationing order, two wheelers will be allowed to purchase petrol of Rs. 200 per day, Rs. 400 for three wheelers and Rs. 1000 for four wheelers.

Due to the ongoing repair work normal train services were also affected disrupting the normal supply of essential commodities, food grains, and transport fuel to southern Assam, Tripura, Manipur and Mizoram.

A senior NFR official said that after partial repair of the damaged railway track, train services resumed in Lumding-Badarpur Hill Section under Southern Assam’s Dima Hasao district on November 3 but fully loaded and normal train services could not be resumed.

“The normal train service including passenger and goods trains is expected to be started on Thursday or latest by Friday. The repair work is going on in a war footing manner.

He said that some trains were either cancelled or rescheduled for undertaking repair works between the Dihako-Mupa sections of the Lumding division, the official added.

All the Express, passenger, local and goods trains connecting Manipur, Southern Assam, Tripura and Mizoram pass through the single track of the Lumding-Badarpur Hill section under the mountainous Dima Hasao district. The Lumding-Badarpur Hill section under the NFR is the lone railway route to connect Manipur, Southern Assam, Tripura and Mizoram with the rest of the country via Guwahati.