AGARTALA, July 28 (TIWN):The land-locked Tripura was cut-off from the rest of the country by road as a large portion of National Highway-44 (NH-44) was damaged in Assam due to the rains, a PWD official said here Monday.The National Highway got badly damaged in around 5 km in Assam's Lower powar area at point 20 three days ago due to incessant monsoon rains.The 630-km-long NH-44 is the only one that links Tripura by road with the rest of India via Shillong and Guwahati.The Tripura government sought Assam and Border Roads Organisation's (BRO) help to urgently repair the road, described as the life line of Tripura."Our transport secretary and chief engineer of PWD (Public Works Department) Thursday have taken up the matter with their Assam counterparts to take steps to urgently repair the national highway," Engineer in Chief, Sunil Bhowmick told TIWN.Meanwhile an official of the Tripura transport department told TIWN that over 1000 goods laden trucks and other vehicles with passengers have been stranded for the past three days after the road was damaged."If the damaged road was not renovated on urgent basis, the situation would be further worsened and the crisis of essential commodities would be further aggravated," the official said.

Meanwhile, the state is  facing  shortage of essential commodities as  NH – 44 , the main arterial road connecting the valley with the rest of the world continues to remain closed due to landslides at several places along the 630-km highway.

Reports reaching from various areas of the state  said while consumers were facing hard time finding products of daily use like vegetables, meat, dairy products, gas; dealers have allegedly started selling products at inflated rates.