Guwahati, May 17 With one more people dead in Udalguri district, the death toll rose to eight in the ongoing pre-monsoon floods and landslides in Assam, where over four lakh people have been affected in 26 districts so far, officials said on Tuesday.
Officials in the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) said that in the last 24 hours, one person died in western Assam's Udalguri district, while seven people had died earlier in the floods and landslides in Dima Hasao and Lakhimpur districts.
Unofficial report from Cachar district, however, said that four people, including a child and two middle-aged men, were washed away in different rivers.
An ASDMA bulletin said that at least 4,03,352 people, including 80,659 children and 1,39,541 women, have been affected and around 1,900 houses have been either partially and fully damaged in 1,089 villages under 26 districts. Over 39,558 people have taken shelter in 89 relief camps.
The worst-affected districts include, Cachar, Dima Hasao, Hojai, Nagaon, Charaideo, Darrang, Dhemaji, Dibrugarh, Bajali, Baksa, Biswanath and Lakhimpur.
The situation in the hill section of the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) in Dima Hasao district remained critical on Tuesday as rain continued to batter the mountainous region, affecting the Lumding-Badarpur single line railway route.
NFR officials said that uninterrupted rains coupled with the difficult terrain severely affected the restoration and repair work, which might take several weeks.
The Lumding-Badarpur section in Assam is the only route to connect Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur and the southern part of Assam with the rest of the country.
This rail link has been cut off for the past four days.
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