In the last four and half years, the multi-faced surface communication has increased in the state attributing overall development of the state, said Transport department’s special secretary Sandeep R Rathore.

In the last four and half years, the multi-faced surface communication has increased in the state attributing overall development of the state, said Transport department’s special secretary Sandeep R Rathore.

Addressing a press conference here at Civil Secretariat on Monday to highlight the achievements of the Transport department, Rathore said with development of communication through road, rail and air connectivity, the trade and tourism sectors got a boost.

He said the India-Bangladesh international inland waterway connectivity route till Sonamura in Sepahijala district would be extended by 40 km inside the Indian territory to the adjoining Gomati district and the construction works for multi-model logistic hub will soon start at the bank of river Gomati in Udaipur.

Work is in full swing for establishing the state's first multi-modal logistics hub in South Tripura's Sabroom, where a special economic zone (SEZ), an integrated check-post and a food park will be set up for promoting trade and business with Bangladesh, said Rathore.

In addition, the state government has already proposed the Centre for setting up another multi-modal logistics hub in Udaipur on the bank of Gomati river as the Sonamura-Daudkandi route has already been declared as 'protocol route' for inland waterways, he said.

Around 20 acre of land has already been identified for the proposed project, while a process has been initiated to identify 30 acre more, he said.

The main objective is to connect Ashuganj, Chittagong and Kolkata ports with Kaladan multimodal transit facility through Myanmar's Sittwe port, said Rathore and added that if direct connectivity is established with Kaladan multimodal transit point, the whole market of South-East Asian nations will be opened for Tripura.

Rathod also said the state government has sought an extension from Sonamura to Maharani via Udaipur for a proposed waterway to Bangladesh's Daudkandi.

The Ministry of Shipping has already sanctioned Rs 24.52 crore for setting up nine floating jetties. It has floated a tender for taking up dredging in the Gomati river to operationalise the route, he said.

Apart from the dredging and up gradation of navigability on River Gomati, the state government has sent a proposal to set up a trans-border trade connectivity network with Chittagong Port of Bangladesh through River Feni that flows between the two countries. The proposal sent to the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways has sought to conduct an automated hydrographic survey on River Feni by the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI). The IWAI has already completed the work for the hydrographic survey.

A floating jetty was constructed at Srimantapur near Sonamura and handed over to the Land Ports Authority of India (LPAI) for operation, maintenance, and management and the work for setting up a permanent jetty is in progress and an agency selected for the work has started work on site, said Rathore.

He said that after 2018, a massive connectivity boost up through railway connectivity connecting Tripura with the rest of the country. He said at present 16 trains are running from Tripura and among them 11 are long distance trains, which was only 7 trains before 2018.

He said that the state government has requested the Railway to start passenger train services for Agartala-Guwhati intercity, Agartala-Puri, Agartala-Jammu and Agartala-Mumbai services. Rathoe said that the Railway Ministry has taken initiative to develop the Agartala railway station into an international standard railway station with all facilities for passengers. He said that the construction works for Agartala-Akhaura international rail route are going on rapidly and initiatives have been taken for doubling the railway track, electrification and other infrastructures development including setting up of escalators, foot over bridge etc.

Rathore said that the construction works for railway yards at Nischintapur and Sabroom will be completed in the current year and hoped that soon international trade with extended railway connectivity will be boosted up.

Additional transport secretary Subrata Choudhury and deputy secretary Maitri Debnath were also present in the press meet.