Rail links to Tripura, Mizoram suffer as rains trigger massive landslides in Assam district

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“On four consecutive days starting April 21, there was unprecedented daily rainfall of about 200 mm, aggregating about 1300 mm in the entire month,” said Northeast Frontier Railway chief engineer Rajendra Prasad Jingar, whose men have been working round the clock to restore the railway tracks either washed away or damaged by the landslides that the rains have triggered off in this hill district.

Just outside the Phiding railway station for instance, landslips have completely taken away about 100 metres of the main railway line apart from bringing down about 200 metres of a retention wall. While the damage caused by the first landslip that occurred on April 24 morning was averted by running trains by the repaired loop line the next day, fresh landslips on April 26 and 27 have made such impacts that the authorities are now not sure when exactly through traffic would be restored. Estimates made by the engineers here put the total land mass that requires to be removed, at over 5,000 cubic metres.

“Landslips and landslides have affected the new 210-km Lumding-Silchar broadgauge line at about 15 spots, chief engineer Jingar said. “We will require several days to completely restore the line, provided there is no more rain. But then the actual monsoon is yet to start. What we are now experiencing is only pre-monsoon rains,” he said. The railways have deployed over 400 workmen apart from a team of engineers to restore the tracks at Phiding alone. Taking all the 15 spots into account, about 800 men must be working round the clock, he said.

The Lumding-Silchar hill section – which was built in the last quarter of the 19th century was commissioned in 1903 – has a history of landslips during the monsoon months, with Jingar pointing out that in August 2008, the section had remained shut for 45 days at a stretch. “The Barail mountains are very prone to landslides and soil flow that directly affect the railway track and cause disruption in railway traffic,” he said.

The rains have also played havoc with the four-lane East-West Corridor that traverses through Dima Hasao district almost parallel to the railway track. “The four-lane East-West Corridor too has been blocked at several places due to massive landslides. While that has affected vehicular traffic, it has also affected movement of relief materials to the affected railway tracks,” chief engineer Jingar said. About 160 kms of the East-West Corridor that links Silchar in southern Assam to Porbandar in Gujarat passes through Dima Hasao district.