Tea Association of India, Barak Valley branch Chairman P K Mishra said here today that the deplorable condition of roads and bridges, non-completion of conversion to broad gauge railways as well as the East-West Corridor, erratic power supply remained a perennial problem of the Valley.
The tea industry of Barak Valley, the mainstay of the region, has been facing multiple problems, standing in the way of its further expansion.
''Tea industry has to incur heavy expenditure for inward carriage of various inputs from outside the state and tea producers in this region may also dispatch their produces to the auction centres and markets located outside the state for a better price realization'', Mishra said.
Transport subsidy will be of great help to the local planters in ofsetting this additional cost of transportation, both inward and outward and ''we urge both central and state governments to seriously consider this justified demand''.
High incidence of local taxes, duties and levies imposed in the area have also hit the tea industry hard.