Railways Restores Assam’s Landslide-Stricken Tracks In Record Time; Services To Tripura To Resume This Week

The Indian Railways has achieved a major feat by restoring 85 kilometres (km) of tracks that were damaged by the devastating landslides in Assam’s Dima Hasao district in mid-May.

The tracks were breached at many places and train services to Assam’s Barak Valley and Tripura had to be suspended.

Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) engineers worked round the clock to repair the breaches on the tracks, construct and repair retaining walls, and repair damaged signalling systems over the past two months.

According to the NFR’s chief public relations officer, Sabyasachi De, train services to and from Agartala will commence later this week. “What made the task of engineers and crew very tough were the incessant rains. There was always the danger of more landslides triggered by the heavy rains. But they displayed a lot of grit and restored the tracks in record time,” De said.

“The task was enormous. Boulders, rock, mud, and slush brought down in the massive landslides had to be cleared from the tracks and their periphery. Once that was done, the repair of the tracks, which was breached at 61 places in the 83 km section, began," a senior NFR engineer said.

"And the signalling systems also had to be restored. All that was achieved in less than two months and that is a record of sorts in the history of not only Indian Railways but also railroad systems around the world,” he added.

The tracks were breached in the Lumding-Badarpur section that connects Barak Valley and Tripura to the rest of the state and country. The snapping of this vital rail link had caused a scare about shortage of essential commodities in landlocked Tripura, especially since rain-triggered landslides had also breached roads to Barak Valley and Tripura at many places.

Railway Minister Ashwin Vaishnaw had promised that the tracks would be restored by 10 July. “The difficult target set by our minister was achieved and good train services resumed on the damaged stretch on 12 July. Since then, good trains to the Barak Valley and Tripura have been operating every day,” said the NFR engineer.

Passenger train services will resume later this week, with the Kanchanjunga Express from Agartala to Sealdah (Kolkata) scheduled to start from Agartala on 23 July. The Deoghar Express from Agartala to Deoghar (Jharkhand) will resume the same day, while the Tejas Express from Agartala to New Delhi will resume from 26 July.

The Railways has spent more than Rs 180 crore in restoring the damaged tracks and other works.