Rescue workers maintain that at least 100 people were killed Wednesday when the flood swept through the power project camp in the popular northern Indian resort district of Kulu in Himachal Pradesh state.

"The death toll may even be around 150 as bodies could still be buried in the debris or washed away downstream by the Parvati river," state legislator Khemi Ram, who is involved in the rescue operation, told AFP.

However, A.K. Puri, Director General of police in Himachal Pradesh, put the official toll much lower.

"In all 35 persons are feared killed with 19 bodies recovered so far and 50 others injured," said Puri, adding that at least 450 people were involved in the massive rescue operation.

"Rescue operations are being hampered by the intermittent rains in Kulu... There has been a complete disruption of road links and this is adding to our problems," he said.

The calamity site is 26 kilometres (16 miles) from Kulu town and local roads and a bridge have been destroyed by the rains.

The state has asked the paramilitary Indo-Tibet Border Police to help with the rescue work at the Parvati hydropower project site.

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Vir Bhadra Singh said some 230 workers, mostly migrant labourers from India's Bihar state and Nepal, were at the construction site when they were hit by the downpour.

"Supplies of blankets, essential rations, shrouds for the dead and money to provide immediate relief have been sent to the calamity site and rescue operations are in full swing," said Singh.

He could not fly to Kulu Wednesday due to the bad weather but was likely to reach the site later Thursday.

Meanwhile, in India's flood-hit northeastern state of Assam, officials reported another two flood-related drownings on Thursday, taking the death toll in the state to 30 since a second wave of flooding began on June 27 following lashing monsoon rains.

Both the deaths were reported from the worst-affected eastern Dhemaji district.

"Two youths were trying to salvage some belongings from their flooded home when their wooden row boat capsized and they were swept away by the strong water current," a local police official told AFP.

At least 3.7 million people have been displaced in more than two weeks of devastating floods in Assam, which have swamped more than 20 of the state's 24 districts.

The authorities have said it is the worst flooding in 50 years.

Assam Health Minister Bhumidhar Barman said flood relief workers had fanned out across the state to distribute drinking water purifying tablets, medicines and bottles of saline.

"We are drinking water from a well filled with mud and filth. We do not have any other source of drinking water in this village," said Pramila Kalita, an elderly Assamese woman whose village in Dhemaji has been struck by dysentery and jaundice.

TERRA.WIRE