(ASSAM) Lumding - Silchar rail line closed till september

steven_ber

The metre gauge railway line connecting Lumding and Silchar will be closed for at least 2 months after a bridge collapsed.

http://telegraphindia.com/1070703/as...ry_8005735.asp

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Train information.

Bhaswaran

Bad news for all ....

kshastry

On a different note, is there any way to get from Agartala to Guwahati other than flying? What would be the route (road)?

- Is public transport available?
- What would be the duration?
- What are all worthy breakpoints on the way?
- What about safety?

Thanks!

steven_ber

I researched this area a few years ago, so things may have changed.

Buses from Agartala travel in convoys to lessen the danger from naxalites.

Silchar is the transport hub for south Assam and most of the other states in the north east, there's nothing worth seeing in Silchar, but I did enjoy sitting by the road for hours just watching all the different people from all the different states.

Busses from Agartala

Guwahati, 2 daily, 20 hours.
Shillong, 1 daily, 20 hours.
Silchar, 2 daily, 11 hours.

Bhaswaran

These are not naxalites. They are local insurgent/terrorist groups, found almost all over the North Eastern States.

steven_ber

I was under the impression that naxalite means insurgent/terrorist, is it more complex than that or have I just got the meaning of the word wrong?

Bhaswaran

Not really Steven....naxalite/maosists are extreme leftist groups fighting for social justice/changing the existing system...they do not fight to create a separate homeland or divide the country like the extremist/terrorist groups do. Although they take up arms for this and fight with government forces (which is their similarity with the terrorist groups). For which, the naxalites have a strong base in the rural areas of various parts of India.

Whereas, the terrorist/insurgent groups are confined only on a regional basis, and always their main aim is to divide the country and create a separate homeland.

Normally, naxalite/maosists tend not to harm common men. I am not a naxal/maosist sympathezizer but if you study their mode of operation, you will understand.

For example, naxalite/maosists blow up railway lines and stations, but they never blow up a passenger train filled with common people, whereas terrorist/insurgent groups do exactly that.

They sometimes kill some people who they pullicize as enemies of the society (may be correct or incorrect), but does not carry out activities like the Bombay bomb blasts.

India has various problems, these to tend to have the same root, but not exactly the same. Anyway, taking up arms agaist the country and killing anyone is not at all good and should not be supported, whatever the cause may be.

To my opinion, both are running on the wrong path.

steven_ber

Thanks Bhaswaran, I understand now, I've always been a little confused when I read newspaper reports.

machadinha

I guess "Naxalite" has just become a common term to denote any such group, not very accurate as Bhaswaran explained.

The movement originated in the later 1960's in the Bengali village of Naxalbari, hence the name. See e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naxalite .

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