GUWAHATI: Flood situation in Assam turned grim with nearly four lakh people reeling under the deluge in seven districts on Friday. Assam State Disaster Management Authority said no casualty has been reported on Friday. On Thursday, three people died due to landslides and drowning.
Train services to Barak valley in southern Assam and Tripura’s capital Agartala remained suspended for the second day following fresh landslides, triggered by torrential rain along the Lumding-Badarpur rail section. At least 13 trains connecting Silchar, Guwahati and Agartala have been cancelled.
Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) CPRO, Pranav Jyoti Sharma said fresh landslides occurred between Bandarkhal and Damchara station, about 36 kms ahead of Badarpur.
“Work is in progress in the affected location. Restoration of tracks is likely to take two to three days,” Sharma said.
Landslides also damaged houses at Birubari and Nizarapar areas here, but there was no casualty.
ASDMA said that 3,86,570 people have been affected in Hojai, Karbi Anglong East, Karbi Anglong West, Golaghat, Karimganj, Hailakandi and Cachar. Cropland covering 1,912.08 hectare is under water. Till Thursday, there were 1.67 lakh flood-affected people in these districts.
According to ASDMA, Dhansiri river in Golaghat, Jia Bharali in Sonitpur, Kopili in Nagaon, Barak in Cachar and Karimganj, Katakhal in Hailakandi and Kushiyara in Karimganj continued to be in spate, aggravating the flood situation.
The Ranganadi hydroelectric project in Lower Subansiri district of Arunachal Pradesh has started releasing excess water because of heavy rain in that state. ASDMA said that the water is being released at a slow pace, but administrations in downstream districts of Assam have been kept on high alert.
Flood-displaced people sheltered in 178 relief camps has increased to 67,175 on Friday from 36,000 on Thursday.
As the flood situation worsened on Friday, 471 marooned persons were rescued from affected districts. Personnel of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force and Assam Rifles are continuing with their rescue and search operations in flood-hit places.
Prasanta Patnaik