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DIMAPUR — Around 100 trucks are stranded around the Chathe River Bridge area along NH-29 in Chümoukedima due to a massive landslide near Dzüdza Bridge under Sechü Zubza.
On Wednesday, August 21, the drivers, huddled in pairs and groups, were seen cooking and having food together. Though accustomed to a life on the move, they were unprepared for such a long haul in an unfamiliar location without nearby markets for their survival.
Tunna Alam (28), who is transporting ice cream from Guwahati to Imphal in an AC carrier, said that he is using four litres of diesel per hour to keep the machine running and prevent the ice cream from melting.
Typically, truck drivers bound for such journeys pack 4 to 5 days' worth of food, but they have already exhausted their supplies.
“How will we survive?” Alam asked. He is concerned about who will cover the losses if they remain stranded for another 10-15 days but their only option is to stay put with no apparent solution in sight.
A medicine carrier truck from Guwahati to Imphal has been stranded for 11 days. The driver, Hussain Ahmed, who is supposed to deliver the medical supplies to a government college, expressed frustration over the lack of food and basic essentials from the government.
He has been spending INR 400-600 per day from his own pocket, managing with only dal and onions due to the unavailability of vegetables.
“One day I eat, the next day I starve. That is how I am surviving here (sic),” Ahmed said, while urging for immediate food supplies and toilet facilities, or give permission to proceed.
"I think it is better to go home and leave my truck here," said 60-year-old Suresh Mahto, who has been stranded on his way from Siliguri to Senapati for seven days, and has run out of money.
“What can we do? Either the government or the local authorities need to provide a solution,” he said.
“We will however stay if they ask us to stay, and if they ask us to leave, we will leave,” he added.
Slamming the authorities for not maintaining the road, he said: “All necessary road repairs should have been completed during the dry season.”
Another driver named Imran Hossain shared that he was facing such a situation for the first time in his 10-12 years of driving, lamenting that they were struggling for needs as basic as water and toilet facilities.
“Even when we are sleeping, we are unsure if the police are here for our security,” said the driver whose primary concerns are food and sleep.
“We don’t know when the roads will reopen, so it would be helpful to know an estimated time,” he said, adding that they wouldn’t have embarked on the journey had the authorities informed them earlier about the situation.
Meanwhile, the area around the stranded trucks also faces littering issue, as there are no facilities for disposing of waste.