Fresh landslide kills woman in Manipur, June 30 toll rises to 49

The NH-37 between Tupul and Namduanjang villages was closed by the Deputy Commissioner for all vehicles, with the exception of those transporting emergency supplies

Landslide, Manipur: Photo: IANS

SNS | IANS  |  New Delhi | July 8, 2022  :  A woman was killed and 10 others injured in a landslide in Manipur’s Churachandpur district on Friday while some body parts were recovered on Friday, the ninth day after the devastating landslide at a railway construction site in Noney district, where 49 bodies have been unearthed so far, officials said.

According to a district official for Churachandpur, a landslide struck a passenger vehicle carrying 12 people, killing a 49-year-old woman and critically injuring 10 others, five of them were women.

Around 80 kilometres from the district office, the tragedy happened near the Tipaimukh route on National Highway 150 between Santing and Saihuan village.

The injured were shifted to the hospital.

Twelve persons, including Territorial Army personnel, are still unaccounted for following the devastating Tupul landslides on June 30, according to officials in the Noney district.

49 bodies, including 32 soldiers from the Territorial Army, as well as those of locals and railroad workers, were discovered, and search efforts to find the missing continued despite bad weather.

Additionally, according to officials, there have been sporadic rock falls on the National Highway-37 over the past four days between Tupul and the Noney district headquarters (near Namduanjang), endangering the lives of drivers and the property of those travelling on the highway.

The NH-37 between Tupul and Namduanjang villages was closed by the Deputy Commissioner for all vehicles, with the exception of those transporting emergency supplies, according to a district official.

Defense and district officials said that despite recent landslides and persistently unfavourable weather, the Indian Army, the Assam Rifles, the Territorial Army, and the National and State Disaster Response Forces resumed their rigorous search activities at the scene of the disaster in Tupul.

An effort will be made to find the final person until all missing members of the Territorial Army and civilians have been located, a defence spokesman said.

The Territorial Army soldiers were deployed at Tupul for security to the railway works, part of the Rs 14,320 crore broad gauge Jiribam-Imphal railway project, being executed by the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR), to connect the Manipur capital on the rail network by 2024.

(with inputs from IANS)