Correspondent

RUKSIN, 6 Jun: In a tragic accident that took place in the Deka-Mising (Dekapam) area on Friday afternoon, a Murkongselek bound passenger train hit a Maruti car on the rail crossing near the Telam railway station, killing the two occupants of the car.

According to eyewitnesses, the Ledo-Murkongselek passenger train hit the car on the rail crossing while it was slowly crossing the rail route. Housewife Rupa Borah Riba (45), who was inside the car, died on the spot and the driver of the car, advocate Rei Riba (28),was rescued alive from the spot but succumbed to injuries on the way to the hospital. Both of them belonged to Tojo village in Seren circle of Lower Siang district.

The accident also caused slight damage to the train’sengine on its front side, which resulted in a four-hour delay in the journey to reach its destination (Murkongselek).

This was not the first accident or loss of human lives on the rail crossings along the Rangiya-Murkongselek BG railway. A similar incident had taken place at the New Deka railway crossing last year. Another such accident occurred at the New Seren railway crossing point near Simenchapori station three years back, in which three persons lost their lives.

The residents of the Assam-Arunachal boundary area have pointed towards negligence of the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) authority in building proper structures at the rail crossing points as the reason behind the fatal accidents.

Local people, including boundary dwellers, said that a joint committee, including members from both neighbouring states, has already been formed and they are moving the higher-ups of the Railway Department to sanction underground crossing points at all strategic locations along the interstate boundary.

“Officials of NFR, even after repeated moves, are not paying any heed to the people’s demand to guard the free and open railway crossing points by erecting proper structures, which is causing a great deal of dissatisfaction among local residents,” said Komnga Karlo, a public leader of Telam village in Lower Siang district.