Guwahati, June 23 (IANS) Train services between south Assam, Tripura, Manipur and Mizoram and the rest of the country via Guwahati have been suspended since Monday evening amid landslides impacting the railway track in the New Haflong-Jatinga Lampur section of the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR), an official said.

NFR’s Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) Kapinjal Kishore Sharma said that on account of boulders along with land mass falling over the railway track in the New Haflong-Jatinga Lampur section, the train services in the Lumding–Badarpur hill section had to be suspended from Monday evening in order to ensure safety of railway passengers.

He said that the landslides occurred owing to improper construction work being undertaken by the NHAI (National Highways Authority of India) for repairing roads.

The CPRO said that it was learnt that road repairing works were going on in that area and as a result of the work, the slope on the downstream side between the road and rail line bulged out, forcing the entire mass moving towards the railway track.

Water is also directly coming over the track from the road side, the official said.

As the condition of the location is critical and highly unsafe for the train to pass, rail traffic has been suspended between Lumding-New Haflong-Badarpur portions with immediate effect, resulting in cancellations and short termination of train services over that section.

The NF Railway authority of the Lumding Division has already written to the NHAI authority to undertake proper protective measures by engaging manpower and machinery so that no further damage to the vital railway track connecting states like Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura and parts of Barak Valley happens.

“Railway has already engaged manpower to clear the debris from the railway track. As a result of the damage to the railway track, services of the nine trains were either cancelled, short terminated and rescheduled,” Sharma said.

Every year during the monsoon, 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.

–IANS

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