Itanagar, Nov 25 (IANS): The Northeast Frontier Railway's (NFR) Principal Chief Safety Officer Suvendu Choudhary went missing after being swept away by the strong currents of the Lohit River in Arunachal Pradesh, officials said on Monday.

An NFR official said that Choudhary, 55, went missing after being swept away by the strong currents of the Lohit River near Parashuram Kund in Arunachal Pradesh’s Lohit district on Sunday afternoon.

The official said that immediately after the incident, the army, local police, local fishermen and State Disaster Response Force personnel launched a search operation but Choudhary has not been located yet.

Senior railway and district officials are at the site to supervise and coordinate the operations. Aerial search has also been arranged, the official said.

According to railway officials, the senior officer, after completing official works went to Parashuram Kund - a a Hindu pilgrimage centre situated at Telu Shati area of Mishmi plateau, along with family and other NFR officials but suddenly slipped into deep water and was swept away. Parshuram Kund is in the lower reaches of the Lohit River, approximately 48 km from Tezu, the headquarters of the Lohit district.

The NFR, one among the 17 railway zones in India, operates in the northeastern states, seven districts of West Bengal and five districts of north Bihar.

According to officials, as many as 18 railway infrastructure projects of 1,368 km length with a total investment of Rs 74,972 crore are going on in the entire northeastern region. As many as 60 stations under the railway zone will be redeveloped with world-class facilities under the Amrit Bharat Stations Scheme. Out of these, 50 are in Assam, four in Tripura, and one each in Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Sikkim. A record number of 470 road over bridges/road under bridges has been constructed since 2014 under NFR's jurisdiction by replacing the existing level crossing gates to enhance safety for road and rail users.