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Dima Hasao and Cachar are two important connecting districts for southern Assam and the states of Manipur, Tripura and Mizoram. In 1996, broad gauge conversion work was started to convert

the 100-year-old, British-era rail network of 180 km from Lumding to Badarpur, which connects a vast section of the northeastern region. This was completed after several delays caused due to

geotechnical constraints and militancy. But since 2016, trains have been running on these converted tracks. In the process, the states of Tripura, Manipur and Mizoram have also been

connected to the national rail network. The four-laning of the road network that passed through these districts was planned during former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s time as part

of the Saurashtra-to-Silchar Mahasadak project. It has been languishing for all these years and is yet to be completed. Again, this delay is partly due to technical issues and alignments,

and also bouts of militancy. However, the last leg of the roadwork is ongoing and is likely to be completed in the coming year. As the recent disaster unfolded, people took to social media

to post photos of the destruction. Many of them were able to alert the disaster management wing of the district administration and rescue missions were accordingly organised. Train

passengers stranded were thus evacuated and people were airlifted to Guwahati and Silchar. But a vast majority of such social media posts claimed that the BG railway network and the

four-lane road were the major causes of this sudden disaster; people also said that surveys were not done properly. Many said that the railway network should have been maintained with the

erstwhile metre gauge route and that the former two-lane road should’ve remained as such. Social media punditry was at its peak, and while many concerns were genuine, such as that around the

absence of local political leadership when such construction happened, the troll brigade didn’t shy away from resorting to even superstitions.