Imphal: A 39-year-old truck driver, Nageena Kumar Mahto, died Wednesday inside his vehicle at Lalpani near Jiribam. He was part of a massive line of over 1,500 goods trucks stranded for nearly a month along National Highway 37. Mahto, from Bihar’s Vaishali district, was discovered unconscious by peers and later pronounced dead at the Jiribam Primary Health Centre. Jiribam police moved the body to Silchar Medical College and Hospital for a post-mortem to determine the cause of death.
Drivers are furious. They have spent weeks waiting for security escorts to reach Imphal without basic access to water, food, or sanitation. The Silchar Drivers’ Union and Manipur’s Transporters’ and Drivers’ Council (TDC) now demand government compensation for Mahto’s family. They are refusing to accept his body until these demands are met. A 24-hour ban on all goods vehicles moving into Manipur is currently in effect.
The unions blame the Centre, Assam, and Manipur governments for the blockade. TDC president Hijam Ranjit stated that the council remains firm on its resolutions regarding the gridlock. If the state fails to provide more security convoys by Sunday, drivers plan to bypass the official escort system. “From Monday, the vehicles will begin moving with or without a security force’s escort,” Ranjit said. The group plans to move in batches of 500 trucks daily if officials do not intervene.
Updated at 14th August 2026 at 1:49pm
The CRPF has stepped up, deploying extra escorts for a massive convoy of 400 supply trucks and 24 fuel tankers headed to Imphal. This follows the successful arrival of 381 vehicles that made the trip on Thursday. While this helps, the return route remains a mess. A separate escort meant to guide 271 empty trucks back to Jiribam is behind schedule.
TDC head Hijam Ranjit acknowledged the extra security but warned that convoys are only a temporary fix. He pinned part of the blame on the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited, demanding they patch up massive potholes and damaged road sections that keep vehicles crawling. Without those repairs, he says, the route stays a bottleneck.
Meanwhile, union leaders suggest Mahto might have pulled through if the backlog had cleared sooner, noting he had been complaining about his health for days before he was found dead. The Silchar Drivers' Union is now working to get his remains back to his family in Narayanpur, Bihar.
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