For the third day in a row, southern Assam, Tripura, Mizoram, and Manipur were shut off from the outside world because the majority of railway lines were either flooded or destroyed by landslides that resulted from Cyclone Remal's aftermath.
A Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) official stated that railway tracks were either inundated or water was overflowing over the tracks due to incessant rains or had been damaged in at least ten places in the New Haflong-Bandarkhal section under the Lumding division in southern Assam's Dima Hasao district, which is a connecting route to south Assam, Tripura, Manipur, and Mizoram. The official mentioned that the water levels of all rivers, including Barak, Madhura, and Jiri, were flowing above the danger level in the region. They added that once the water level receded, restoration work could be started. The official further explained that intermittent heavy rain was also significantly impeding the work. However, they assured that engineers and workers were working round-the-clock to restore rail services. The official expressed uncertainty about the resumption of railway services in the region if rain occurs in the coming days with the onset of the monsoon. The NFR had cancelled a large number of express, passenger, and goods trains bound for south Assam, Tripura, Manipur, and Mizoram since Tuesday. Tripura Food and Civil Supplies Minister Sushanta Chowdhury appealed to people not to panic and assured them that the state had sufficient food stocks, as well as enough petrol and diesel stocks, to last another week. Passenger and goods train services have been affected in the region since April 25 due to heavy landslides causing damage to railway tracks in the Jatinga Lumpur-New Harangajao section under the Lumding division after heavy rains lashed the mountainous Dima Hasao district. Considering the damaged railway tracks and weak soil in the region, the NFR had recently operated a limited number of trains in the daytime on the hilly route, besides regulating long-distance, express, and goods trains. The disruptions in services had caused a major shortage of transport fuel "petrol and diesel" and other essential goods in southern Assam, Tripura, Mizoram, and Manipur. Due to heavy rain and landslides, highway connectivity had also been affected in these states, which heavily relied on fuel, essential items, food grains, and other commodities from the outside.
