Guwahati: The Assam inland water transport department on Monday cancelled ferry services from Madhyam Khanda Ghat in North Guwahati and Pandu Ghat here because of the rise in the water level of the Brahmaputra.

"The Brahmaputra is flowing at 47.78 metres, while the danger level is 49.68 metres. In Madhyam Khanda Ghat, the connecting road from main road to the port has been eroded and in Pandu Ghat area high currents have been observed. Therefore, ferry services from these two ghats have been postponed until further order," IWT official Vikramaditya Choudhury told The Telegraph.

IWT sources said the Brahmaputra was rising and if such a situation persists, all ghats will have to stop operating. In Guwahati, nearly 30,000 passengers use the inland water transport every day.

"In Madhyam Khanda Ghat, two ferries ply daily, and between Pandu and Maligaon one ferry provides service daily," Choudhury said.

On the other hand, because of the lack of proper rules, private boats, most risky to ply in rising water levels of the Brahmaputra, continued their services.

Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Monday instructed the deputy commissioner of Hailakandi to speed up relief and rescue operations and release the ex gratia to the kin of the dead quickly. Sonowal took stock of the flood situation in the district, an official statement said.

Meanwhile rail communication to south Assam and Tripura has also been disrupted because of the floods in the Barak Valley. The Northeast Frontier Railways (NFR) on Monday used trolleys on the flooded tracks to rescue marooned people in Barak Valley and distributed essential items. Ten trains were cancelled because of floods and landslides between Lumding and Badarpur.

NFR chief public relations officer Pranav Jyoti Sharma said although train services in the section that connects Barak Valley and Tripura was restored on Sunday, railway lines were damaged in at least eight places between Badarpur-Silchar and Manu-Amabasa-Mungiakami sections, which were still inundated.

"Several stations have become shelters for the marooned people. More than 1,600 people have taken shelter at Katakhal, Amabasa, Algapur and Salchapra stations. We have provided 110 cartons of bottled water, baby food, rice and other items to the marooned people. We are also rescuing marooned people on our trolleys," he said.

Sharma said trains between Silchar-Agartala, Silchar-Dharmanagar, Agartala-Dharmanagar, Silchar-Mahisasan and Silchar-Bhairabi were cancelled.

Till Monday, nearly 5.49 lakh people in Nagaon, Hojai, Golaghat, Cachar, Hailakandi and Karimganj district of the state have been stranded in the first wave of floods. Assam State Disaster Management Authority said 20 revenue circles comprising 719 villages have been affected in the floods. The state government has set up 437 relief camps for nearly 1.59 lakh people.

The toll rose to 12 with the recovery of a body in Hailakandi district of Barak Valley on Monday. The deceased has been identified as Muthoi Singha of Lala. Karimganj recorded three deaths while Cachar registered four deaths taking the death toll in the Barak Valley to nine.

Assam water resources minister Keshab Mahanta said the government would order an inquiry into the breaches of embankments . Friends of The Earth in Silchar on Monday distributed food items among 100 families at Government Girls' High School.

Traffic banned: In Arunachal Pradesh, the West Kameng district administration has banned traffic along the stretch of Balipara-Charduar-Tawang (BCT) road till Sunday following fresh landslides in Sessa near Bomdila in the district on Monday morning.

People travelling to West Kameng or Tawang can take the Orang-Kalaktang-Shergaon-Rupa-Tenga road, a two lane all-weather road.

Additional reporting by our Hailakandi correspondent and Damien Lepcha in Itanagar