Floods, the worst ever: Assam CM

The current floods in Assam have surpassed all previous records in terms of damage to infrastructure, livestock, crop and other assets, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has told Prime Minister Manmohan Singh 

In a letter to the prime minister, he said that a preliminary assessment has found that 2,286 villages have been inundated affecting 300,000 hectares of crop area. As many as 18 out of the 24 districts in the State have been hit. NH-31 remains submerged; road and rail communication continues to be disrupted severing the State's transport links with the rest of the country.

At least 13 people have drowned. Floods waters have washed away 10,678 houses while over 400,000 houses are partially damaged. The total damage to the State in the current wave of floods at nearly Rs 1,000 crore.

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He has asked the prime minister to immediately depute a high powered central team to make a joint survey of the flood situation in Assam and allot Rs 1,200 crore under the Natural Calamity Contingency Fund even as more than 25 lakh (2.5 million) people were hit by devastating floods.

The North East Frontier Railway has been diverting trains through the Guwahati-Goalpara route on the south bank of the Brahmaputra since the track on the main route between Guwahati and New Jalpaiguri in north Bengal is submerged.

The road link between state capital Guwahati and southern Assam's Barak valley is also cut off following heavy landslides on National Highway 44. This has also affected access to the neighbouring states of Mizoram and Tripura.