Railway link to parts of Northeast partially restored after six days

Guwahati: The railway link to Tripura, Manipur, Mizoram and southern Assam was partially restored on Sunday, six days after it was snapped due to landslides in the Lumding-Badarpur hill section of the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR), officials said.

Limited train operations are being allowed for the time being, with normalisation of movement expected by Monday, they said.

"The first goods train and first passenger train (Kanchenjunga Express) crossed the landslide-affected location at Jatinga Lampur after restoration," an NFR spokesperson said.

An NFR statement on Saturday evening said that train movement along the affected portion between KM 108/6-8, via Jatinga Lumpur-New Haflong in the hill section will be partially restored from Sunday.

"Restoration efforts at the affected location are progressing rapidly to normalise train movement. Limited train operations are planned between 12:00 and 18:00 hours tomorrow (29.06.2025), with full-fledged train services expected to resume from Monday," it said.

Goods trains carrying petroleum products and food grains bound for Tripura and the Barak Valley will be prioritised for movement along the section.

A POL (petroleum, oil and lubricants) wagon currently stranded at Guwahati and scheduled for unloading at Dharmanagar, Tripura, will be dispatched as soon as the track is cleared, the statement had said.

The section between KM 108/6-8 in the Lumding-Badarpur hill section was severely affected by multiple earth slips triggered by heavy rainfall.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had said that besides rail connectivity, partial road communication through landslide-hit Dima Hasao district, mainly to Barak Valley in the southern part of the state, will be restored by Sunday.

"NHAI has improved diversions along the under-construction greenfield four-lane alignment near Haflong. From tomorrow, LMVs and ambulances will be allowed through this alternative route," Sarma had said in a post on X on Saturday.