GUWAHATI: Due to heavy rains and a rise in the water level of the Brahmaputra River, ferry services between Majuli and Nimatighat have been suspended indefinitely beginning Friday.
The district administration of Majuli informed the public of the decision to suspend ferry services between Nimati and Kalabari, as well as other ferry services, due to the rise in the Brahmaputra's water level. The Majuli District Administration has also said that services have been discontinued till further notice.
The MV Lohit, a Majuli-bound ferry boat, went missing in the middle of the Brahmaputra River on June 19, causing concern among inhabitants of both districts.
According to reports, the ferry carrying 134 passengers and 32 bikes left Nimati Ghat around 1.30 p.m., but it was lost in the dense fog.
It should be mentioned that on June 20, a day after a ferry boat went missing in the Brahmaputra River, ferry services between Jorhat and Majuli were hampered due to high fog.
Due to the dense fog, the Inland Water Transport Department cancelled ferry services between Jorhat and Majuli to avoid any adverse situations.
In 2021, a tragic ferry tragedy occurred in Nimatighat in Jorhat, Assam, where a ferry carrying hundreds of people drowned in the Brahmaputra. The passenger boat was travelling from Nimati Ghat in Jorhat to Kamalabari in Majuli when it collided with a goods carrier vessel and sank shortly after.
It has also been reported that the crash killed around 100 passengers. On the other hand, the flood situation in Assam worsened dramatically on June 22, with one person killed and about five lakh people stranded across 12 districts, according to an official report.
As of June 22, a total of 4,95,799 persons had been displaced from Tamulpur in Assam, with one death reported.
According to the Assam State Disaster Management Authority's (ASDMA) daily flood report, one person perished as a result of flooding in Tamulpur, Udalguri district. According to an ASDMA official, this is the first official record of a flood-related death this year.
According to the report, Barpeta is the hardest hit, with over 3,25,600 individuals affected, followed by Nalbari with over 77,700 and Lakhimpur with over 25,700. Until Wednesday, approximately 1.2 lakh people were affected by floods in 10 districts throughout the state.
The administration has run 83 relief camps in seven districts, sheltering 14,035 people, and 79 aid distribution centres in eight districts.
According to the ASDMA, 1,366 villages are currently under water, and 14,091.90 hectares of cropland have been devastated across Assam. Massive erosions have occurred in Sonitpur, Bongaigaon, Darrang, Dhubri, Lakhimpur, Morigaon, Nalbari, South Salmara, and Udalguri, according to the report.
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