Rail services to Tripura, Mizoram disrupted

Silchar (Assam), June 10 : Rail services to parts of Assam, Tripura and Mizoram have been suspended after damage to an old rail bridge in southern Assam, officials said Thursday.

"After sudden increase of water in a tributary of Jatinga river, a girder of an old bridge was washed away Wednesday night causing the railway bridge to slant," Northeast Frontier Railway spokesman Subrata Hajong told reporters.

Senior railway officials and engineers have rushed to the spot, 300 km south of Assam's main city, Guwahati.

A goods train running between Badarpur to Lumding in southern Assam was also stranded after the damage to the bridge.

"Work has been started to repair the railway bridge. We can not confirm when the railway services would be restored in this region," Hajong added.

The meter gauge railway line passes through the North Cachar area of southern Assam, connecting Agartala and Bairabi in northern Mizoram besides several districts of southern Assam with the rest of the country.

In June 2007, eight people were killed and 15 others injured when seven wagons and the two engines of a goods train jumped the rail and fell into a flooded Jatinga river following the collapse of a 114-year-old railway bridge in the same region.

The accident had led to suspension of railway services in the region for more than four months.