NF Railway makes stopgap arrangement for passengers

Silchar-Lumding BG

Special Correspondent

Silchar, July 1: BG rail services between Guwahati and Silchar were started in November, 2015. But, the vagaries of ture leading to unprecedented rainfall, triggering landslides and dislocation of track caused disruption in the run of passenger and goods trains on the Lumding-Badarpur hill section from April, 2016. While most of the damaged spots have been restored, the section from Mahur to New Haflong is posing a serious challenge where substantial work is to be done due to very adverse geophysical conditions.

 Till the restoration of this part and resumption of regular train services, the NF Railway has got in touch with state administration for “road bridging” of the disturbed section. This arrangement means passengers will avail  themselves of road transport facility between Mahur and New Haflong and continue their journey beyond by suitably timed trains.  A Special Train is proposed to run from Guwahati to Mahur by which passengers can travel up to Mahur, then board a bus from Mahur to New Haflong and from New Haflong catch the special train to Silchar.

 Similarly, they can avail themselves of the special train running between Silchar to New Haflong and take a bus from New Haflong to Mahur and board the special train to Guwahati. Both these special trains will have eight general and sleeper class coaches accommodating about 800 passengers. For this, the NF Railway has requested the state government to provide adequate bus services between Mahur and New Haflong for which passengers will buy tickets and pay separately.

 General Mager, NF Railway has already spoken to the Chief Secretary of the state and correspondence has been made to the Secretary, Transport, so that adequate bus service is made available between Mahur and New Haflong to facilitate smooth movement of passengers.  The timings of the special trains have been scheduled and notified. NF Railway has made it clear this is only a stop gap arrangement till full passenger service resumes between Guwahati and Silchar, which is expected to take another 15 days time.