Landslide In Sonapur Disrupts Vehicular Traffic On Shillong Road; Trains Cancelled, Airfares Skyrockets

Barak Valley gets disconnected yet again from the rest of the country. After the train services were severely hit, now road connectivity is also impaired. This evening, after a landslide in Meghalaya’s Sonapur, the Guwahati-Silchar road was closed with hundreds of vehicles stuck on the way. Eroded land from the hills along with trees fell over a moving truck, with its driver and handyman escaping narrowly. With this now the only means of connectivity for Barak Valley with the rest of the country is through the air route. The airfares between Silchar and Guwahati also skyrocketed with IndiGo charging as high as thirteen thousand for a one-way ticket.

The landslide that happened this evening near the Sonapur Tunnel caught everyone off guard. A moving truck was hit by the eroding soil and trees from the hill. The driver and the handyman of the truck escaped narrowly, with the truck immovable. As the East-West Corridor is still incomplete, this landslide has completely disconnected Barak Valley from Guwahati. Torrential rainfalls in the North-East cause such landslides every year on this route.

Hundreds of vehicles are stuck on the NH 6 near Sonapur in Meghalaya. Restoration work is going on to free the route from the obstacles and the eroded mud. Silchar-Guwahati Express and the Badarpur-Guwahati Vistadome trains have also been cancelled today by the NF Railway owing to the maintenance of the tracks, after the derailment in the Hill Section.

The East-West corridor is yet to be complete after several promises by different elected representatives. After this landslide people are forced to take the incomplete “Mahasadak” which also has the risk of landslides or purchase overpriced air tickets.