Tripura chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb during his address at the fifth Governing Council Meeting of NITI Aayog, chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Saturday, expressed that with the coming up of the Inland Water Transport project in Tripura the State could be converted into the gateway to the Northeast.
He viewed that this project may be expedited and grounded at the earliest by declaration of rive Gomati as Indo- Bangladesh protocol route etc.
Drawing attention to the state’s aviation sector the chief minister said that the State would be benefitted if the existing aviation guidelines are amended to facilitate the private operators to increase the frequency of flights in the state of Tripura.
According to Deb there is an urgent need to operate direct evening flights from Delhi to Agartala as well as from Agartala to Delhi facilitating the technocrats including doctors and health experts, Central government officials, private investors and so on to save their valuable time.
The Tripura chief minister viewed that to resolve unemployment in landlocked Tripura which surrounded by Bangladesh from three sides, tourism can play a vital role and so the new government is also emphasized on boosting tourism and in which the South Tripura district will play a significant role.
He proposed that the Ministry of Tourism may help the state to construct a ropeway connecting Matabari (Tripurasundari Temple) and Chhabimura, famous for its panels of rock carving on steep mountain wall on the bank of river Gomati.
Deb stated that Tripura is among the best five performing states in the country in respect of e-PDS and supply chain management.
The chief minister also spoke in favour of having more CSR fund in the Northeast, adding that the public sector companies in India may be permitted to spend 10 per cent of their CSR funds in the NE States as this will pave way for early implementation of ‘HIRA’, the grand initiative of Prime Minister, which will boost not only tourism sector but also many other sectors in the state.