Express trains resume in Lumding-Silchar section after 17 months

Silchar, Oct 20 : Two major trains under Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) namely Barak Valley Express and Cachar Express trains connecting Silchar with Lumding will resume services suspended due to insurgency attack after a gap of 17 months today.

This has been possible after the ceremonial surrender of Dima Halam Daoga (Jewel Gorlosa) militants on October 2 followed by return of peace in Assam’s North Cachar Hills district.

Services of both the trains were terminated on May 15, 2008 for an indefinite period due to spurt in violence triggered by the DHD (J) militants, known as Black Widows in NC Hills over the past three years.

N F Railway Area Manager (Badarpur) Debasish Dhar Chawdhary today said both the Cachar Express and Barak Valley Express trains will run under normal security arrangements along the 218-km route.

He said the Railway Police forces will guard the trains as done under normal circumstances.

Both 5693/5694 Barak Valley Express and 5691/5692 Cachar Express trains left Silchar and Lumding ends at around 0825 and 1715 hrs respectively on Tuesday, he informed.

The Area Manager said the Assam government, issued an order on October 13, giving a green signal for normal running of the trains.

The action of the authorities was hailed by passengers and railway unions as well.

The running of both the major trains will help revive the economy and communication facilities in the land-locked region. The Lumding-Silchar route is known to be lifeline for south Assam, Tripura, Mizoram and parts of Manipur.

Under the instance of Tripura government, N F Railway on October 16 started the Agartala-Lumding passenger train.

Apart from this, at present a special passenger and a Diwali special runs between Lumding and Silchar.

The government earlier placed responsibility of manning the rail tracks in that particular section on the Assam Police and Central para-military forces.

Railway Protection Force (RPF) is responsible for security of railway stations, railway staff colonies and other railway property.

Authorities introduced bulletproof engines to ensure security of the railway men manning the locomotives.

--UNI

(c) 2009 Published with permission from United News of India.
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