Mizoram: Train services & road transportation disrupted due to rains

Aizawl, Sep 17 (IANS) The disruptions in train services and bad highway conditions badly interrupted the ferrying of transport fuel, essentials and food grains in mountainous Mizoram, officials said on Tuesday. 

Railway officials said that trains have been cancelled since August 21 on the Jamira (in Assam’s Hailakandi district)-Bairabi (Mizoram) route as the railway tracks were badly damaged due to the floods and landslides last month.

The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) officials said that engineers and workers have been working round-the-clock in the flood and landslides-affected sites in Mizoram to restore the railway services at the earliest.

“We are not sure when the passenger as well as goods train services would be restored in Mizoram,” an NFR official said on Tuesday.

Officials and truck drivers separately said that the stretches of National Highway-306 and National Highway-6 in Kolasib district, adjoining Assam, were badly damaged in the recent heavy rains along with landslides and required urgent repair.

Oil tanker and truck drivers have decided to suspend plying of their vehicles from Tuesday through the two national highways citing extremely bad road conditions

The terrible road conditions posed a severe risk to the lives of drivers, and could also lead to oil spills from tankers, Oil tankers and truck drivers observed.

Most filling stations in Aizawl and other cities in Mizoram ran out of stock while prices of essentials went very high due to the dislocation of ferrying transport fuels – petrol and diesel during the past few days.

Meanwhile, the state’s Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department officials however have urged people not to panic and said the state government is taking all measures to repair the road stretches.

Chief Minister Lalduhoma on Monday had discussed the issue with leaders of the Mizoram Commercial Vehicles’ Union.

He had said that recent torrential rain and landslides have severely impacted the state's infrastructure.

People of southern Assam, Tripura, Mizoram and Manipur bear the brunt of floods every year during monsoon while the railway tracks, stations and other infrastructure get damaged due to the flood and landslides during the four-month-long monsoon, lasting from June to September.

The disruptions in train services during monsoon every year cause a major shortage of transport fuels like petrol and diesel and other essential goods in southern Assam, Tripura, Mizoram, and Manipur, which are all heavily dependent on fuel, essential items, food grains and other commodities from the outside.

--IANS

sc/dan