Rainstorm hits normal life in Tripura, Mizoram

Agartala/Aizawl, April 6: Overnight seasol cyclonic rains and thunder storms disrupted power supply and surface transport movement besides damaging a large number of houses in Mizoram and Tripura, officials said on Monday.

Damage to over 1,000 houses, crops and vehicles was also reported while at least 15 people were seriously injured in different parts of Tripura in incidents of lightning strike accompanied by heavy rains. The cyclonic rainstorm has been creating havoc in Tripura, Mizoram and southern Assam since Thursday. “The storms accompanied by rains completely damaged over 1,000 houses in different parts of Tripura last night (Sunday),” said an official with the disaster magement centre in Agartala.

According to a report of the state’s electricity corporation, over 1,400 electric poles were damaged, over 800 km of power transmission lines brought down and over 100 power distribution stations affected. In Mizoram, pre-monsoon thunderstorms, accompanied by massive hailstorm and strong winds, have left trails of destruction in various parts since Thursday night, a disaster magement and rehabilitation department official said. The official said hundreds of houses, especially those that are tin-roofed and made of bamboo, were damaged across the state and 10 people were injured in Mamit and Lunglei districts.

A Tripura government official said a large part of Tripura remained in darkness after power transmission lines spped. Engineers and workers have been working round-the-clock to restore both electric supply and vehicular movement in Tripura.

Six people, who were injured in the cyclone-related incidents, were shifted to government hospitals, a South Tripura district official said. Nine workers in a brick kiln at Kalyanpur in Khowai district were injured in a lightning strike. Over 1,200 Tripura-bound goods-laden trucks and other vehicles have been stranded in Assam’s Karimganj district as the seven-km stretch of tiol Highway 44, Tripura’s lifeline, was badly damaged due to landslide at Loir Poa. Tripura’s meteorological department director Dilip Saha told IANS: “The seasol Nor’wester (cyclonic rainstorm) would continue till the onset of monsoon. The recurring Nor’wester is now active in entire eastern and northeast India and a few other places in the country.” The four-month-long (June-September) southwest monsoon normally hits the northeast region during the first week of June. (IANS)