Commodities from the Haldia Port in West Bengal can be transported to Tripura faster once the state gets access to Chittagong Port in Bangladesh, Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb said here today.
In addition, prices of essential commodities would go down by 30 per cent, the chief minister said.
Speaking at the inaugural event of Sepahijala District and Session Judge Court in Sonamura, 60 km from Agartala, Deb said his government is working to turn Tripura into a "commercial hub" in the next five years.
"Our target is to make Tripura a commercial hub within the next five years. We hope to launch an international gateway with Bangladesh via Sabroom in South Tripura very soon. We hope to get access to Chittagong port. Once it starts, the distance between Haldia Port in Bengal and Tripura will be reduced by 1,200 km and prices of commodities will be reduced by 30 percent," the chief minister said.
"It is my pledge that I will form a crime-free and modern self-sufficient state. We need to strengthen the judicial system because law and order situation will improve if the judicial system grows strong. If law and order and judiciary both improve, it will be a step towards forming a model state and we can win the war against crime on women," Deb said.
Deb said that Maharaja Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya, the last reigning king of the state, was "architect of modern Tripura".
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During the king's rule, Tripura was self-reliant in all respects, Biplab claimed, adding, the state became dependent on the Centre since its merger with the Indian Union in 1949.
He also launched a scathing attack against former Chief Minister Manik Sarkar over cultivation of cannabis and said Sarkar "could not understand the soil of Tripura".
"Sipahijala is the place where queen variety pineapples are grown in abundance. Instead of cultivating pineapples here, he (Sarkar) encouraged cultivating cannabis. Due to this, proper resource mobilisation could not be done and Tripura was not developed," he said.
The BJP-IPFT government would work against all forms of addiction and try to develop everyone irrespective of bias, he said.
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