 "2013 saw Left Front winning 5th consecutive term in Tripura")
Inflicting a crushing blow on Congress and other opponents, the Left Front led by 64-year-old Chief Minister Manik Sarkar bagged 50 seats in the March Assembly elections. The state also provided 86.27 days of work on an average to a rural household under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.According to State Rural Development Minister Jitendra Chowdhury, "When the national average is 39, the state could provide 86.27 days of work to the job card holders. Tripura secured first position in implementation of the Act."
The state also introduced for the first time in the country PVC Electoral Photo Identity Cards (PVC EPICs) in November as mandated by the Election Commission.
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News magazine 'India Today' adjudged Tripura as the best governed state in the country for undertaking developmental works for the common masses and felicitated Sarkar.
Though insurgency was on the wane, the Tripura government decided to extend the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act in 34 police station areas for another six months from January 1 to wipe it out completely. For the first time, the central committee meeting of the CPI-M was held in the state from December 15-17 which decided to maintain equal distance from Congress and BJP and form an electoral alliance with the other secular forces for the coming parliamentary elections. It also decided to project Tripura as a model state of development.
Northeast's biggest gas-fired thermal project at Palatana in Gomati district was dedicated to the nation by President Pranab Mukherjee on June 21 to cater to seven of the eight states in the region facing power shortage.
The 726 MW project combined with linked transmission project and upstream gas supply network have attracted investments of around Rs 10,000 crore in the region. The National Highway Authority of India approved a proposal of the state government for conversion of the Agartala-Sabroom national highway into four-lane. However, in a setback, the Agartala-Dhaka bus service was temporarily suspended due to continuous strike called by Opposition parties in Bangladesh since November. Trade between the two countries through the Integrated Check Post at Akhaura, near here was also disrupted.
The governments of India and Bangladesh, however, made considerable progress on the proposed rail network from Agartala to Akhaura in in the neighbouring country. Work for laying tracks would begin soon after the survey is completed. Of the 15.054 km track, only five km will fall on the Indian side.
According to Tripura Transport Minister Manik Dey, extension of the railway line from Agartala to Sabroom, about 110 km from here, would be completed by March 2015. Sabroom is about 70 km from Chittagong Port.
Vice President Hamid Ansari inaugurated northeast's biggest museum housed in Ujjayanta Palace of the erstwhile Manikya dynasty. The two-storeyed palace spread over about one sq km area served as the State Legislative Assembly till 2011.
The government also announced that Agartala airport would be upgraded to international standards by 2016 at a cost of Rs 300 crore.
The state government has long been demanding that the airport be declared an international one for connectivity to Dhaka and Chittagong.
Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde inaugurated an Integrated Check Post on November 17 near Indo-Bangla international border at Akhaura here. The Akhaura ICP is the second biggest between the two countries after Benapole-Petrapole in West Bengal.