Transportation disruptions & rising airfare concerns people in Barak Valley

Silchar, May 1: At a time when inclement weather is causing severe disruptions across various places in the state and train services are affected owing to derailment in the Lumding division, people of southern Assam are faced with great difficulties in moving out of the region to reach the state capital.

On Tuesday, the NF Railways issued a communiqué stating the cancellation of as many as eight trains, including the Guwahati-Silchar Express and trains to other locations as well. A couple of trains have also been rescheduled, as per the communiqué.

While the train services are hampered, the road stretch through the hilly terrain of Meghalaya is also sending shudders down the spines of the travellers.

According to passengers along the route, owing to massive holes in multiple locations from Malidahar to Sonapur, travelling along the terrain has become a scary affair. Some passengers informed that the congestion that took place on Monday night at around 9 p.m. at a place before Umkiang in Meghalaya was eased on Tuesday morning around 6 a.m., making life difficult for the passengers.

In this backdrop, the sole option of resorting to airways is also beyond the reach of the commoners from Barak Valley and other parts of the region, courtesy of a sudden surge in airfares.

A closer look at the airfare of Indigo Airlines between Silchar to Guwahati for a 45-minute travel time revealed that the prices range from Rs 9,000 to Rs 11,000 per ticket for the first two days in May. When contacted, a senior official of the airlines at the Silchar airport said that they can empathise with the passengers at this crucial juncture and will report the matter to find out plausible solutions at the earliest.

Meanwhile, air passengers from Barak Valley have expressed astonishment to learn that while Alliance Air could fly passengers on the Imphal-Aizawl route for Rs 500 per ticket, what stops the authorities from slashing the prices on the Silchar-Guwahati route? Many have also raised demands for reintroducing subsidised air services.