Good news for the people planning to travel north-east region, as today (29th August 2017) the railway run a goods train with railway materials to check the condition of the renovated tracks. The train also crossed the bridge made by Engineers of Army's Military Engineering Services (MES) between Sudhani and Telta stations under Katihar division of the NFR and also the railway tracks which were in worst shape after the floods. Engineers of Army's Military Engineering Services (MES) worked round-the-clock in an unprecedented endeavour to restore train services from Tuesday. According to railway official, today a goods train with railway materials plied first to check the condition of the renovated tracks. "If the goods train moves trouble-free, then the passenger train will be run through the repaired railway tracks and bridges," he added.
It should be noted that the rail link with the northeast has remained snapped for over a fortnight now due to the floods ravaging West Bengal and parts of Bihar such as Kishanganj, Katihar, besides parts of the hilly region. Engineers, officials and workers of Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) worked on a war-footing to restore railway services which has been completely snapped with other parts of the country due to heavy floods since August 12.
Due to the massive floods in Bihar, West Bengal and Assam, train services in the northeastern states came almost to a standstill earlier this month. But the services were largely restored within the region after the NFR engineers, officials and workers worked round-the-clock. The floods caused extensive damage to railway tracks, bridges, culverts, communication systems and other infrastructure.
An NFR official said due to cancellation of trains and the resulting cancellation of tickets, the NFR had suffered a loss of around Rs 650 crore so far. "Though it has not been estimated yet, but the NFR might have suffered another Rs 500-600 crore loss because of damage to railway assets, including bridges, culverts, tracks and communication network," he said.
Due to the suspension of train services between the northeastern region and the rest of the country, scarcity of many essentials, food grains and other vital items have affected life in the region. "Crisis of food items, essentials and household goods put the people of the northeastern region in a troubled situation," said Satya Ranjan Kundu, spokesman of a key trading association. Assam's Food and Civil Supplies officials held a series of meetings with the NFR to chalk out ways to transport essentials, foodgrains and other important goods. All the trains between the mountainous northeastern states and the rest of India pass through New Jalpaiguri station in north Bengal and Katihar division in Bihar.
