Agartala, Aug 25 : The overall flood situation in Tripura further improved on Sunday with the water receding in many places even as 1.17 lakh people are still sheltered in 525 relief camps in various districts, an official said.

The catastrophic flood which hit the state for the first time in over three decades, so far, claimed 31 lives, including women and children, and a few other people injured in landslides and drowning in flood water in six of the eight districts -- South Tripura, Gomati, West Tripura, Sepahijala, Unakoti and Khowai since August 19 and two persons were reportedly missing.

Disaster Management officials said on Sunday that a preliminary assessment of the damage due to the heavy rains and flood amounted to around Rs 15,000 crore, which could rise further after field assessment.

They said that as per the initial estimates, around 20,300 houses were damaged partly and fully due to the heavy rains, landslides and flood across the state.

However, vast areas including croplands and human habitations in urban and rural areas are still inundated.

Over 17 lakh people were affected in the entire state, which has witnessed unprecedented rain and devastating floods since August 19.

Landslides occurred in a record number of 2,066 places and many important highways, including the National Highway- 8, the lifeline of Tripura, have been damaged.

Officials said that most of the highways were, however, gradually becoming operational now.

Currently, five teams of the National and State Disaster Response Force along with 500 volunteers of Civil Defence and Apada Mitra are still engaged in relief and rescue operations, an official said, adding that so far, 27,000 food packets have been distributed in Gomati and South Tripura districts.

The Disaster Management officials said that most of the rivers, including Gomati in Tripura, are flowing below the danger level.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Sunday that 'heavy to very heavy rainfall' is very likely to occur at isolated places throughout Tripura till Monday.

The IMD sounded a 'Red Alert' for Sunday in South Tripura district and 'Orange Alert' in Dhalai and Gomati districts.

The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) has cancelled several local trains in the state.

An NFR spokesperson said that due to heavy rain, railway tracks were damaged in Gomati and South Tripura districts, forcing the authorities to cancel these trains.

/IANS