INDIAN STATE : TRIPURA

Roads

The total length of roads in Tripura is 15,227 km of which major district roads constitute 454 km and other district roads are of 1,538 km.

Aviation

The states only Airport is at Agartala (Ushabazar), which is connected with Kolkata.

Seaport

Chittagong, Bangladesh (110 km from Sabroom)

River port

Ashuganj, Bangladesh (30 km from Agartala), Karimganj, and Assam (250 km from Agartala)

Social Infrastructure

Education

Number of Institution in Tripura

Source : State Survey and Statistics

Major Industries

Rubber

With suitable topography and the acceptability amongst the people, rubber has been identified as one of the thrust areas in Tripura. According to the studies about 1,00,000 hectares of area in the state can be brought under rubber plantation. Tripura is estimated to have about 26,500 hectares under rubber cultivation at present, which is the second largest after Kerala. Also, the yield per hectare and the quality of rubber are also comparable to Kerala's plantations. Infact, the Rubber Board now considers Tripura the "Second Rubber Capital of India".

During the tenth plan period, the state government has taken up an ambitious programme to considerably increase the area under rubber plantations. The rubber production at present is about 10,000 MT, and is rising fast with more and more plantations reaching the tapping stage. At present, only about 10% of rubber is locally produced in the state by industrial units and the remaining is sold outside the state. Recently, Bangladesh has also been added in the exporters list of rubber.

Availability of fine quantity of high quality rubber offers sufficient scope for setting up of rubber-based industries in the state. In order to provide necessary infrastructure of rubber-based projects the state government is in the process of setting up a rubber park.

Food processing

Tripura possess ideal suited agro-climatic conditions for production of a large range of horticultural crops. The "Queen" and "Kew" varieties of pineapple, jampui oranges, lichis and cashew are some of the products of Tripura that are popular in the rest of the country. These products are mostly organic in nature. Presently, the estimated annual production level of major horticultural crops such as Pineapple: 82,000 MT, Lichi: 3000 MT, Orange: 16,000 MT, Cashew: 1,800 MT, Jackfruit: 2,20,000 MT and, Coconut: 1,250 MT.If setting up fruit processing units creates demand the production can be further increased.

In Tripura the fruit processing industry is still at a budding stage. With regard to pineapple processing, NERAMAC (a Government of India undertaking), has set up a modern Pineapple Juice Concentrate Plant at Nalkata in North Tripura District, with a processing capacity of about 5,760 TPA. Cashew processing has also been taken up by NERAMAC by setting up a small unit. This plant is operated at a low level due to non-operation of aseptic filter. TSIC (a state government undertaking) is also operating a small fruit-canning factory that produces fresh canned pineapple juice and other pineapple products. This factory holds the processing capacity of 400 TPA.

Food processing has been identified as a major thrust area in Tripura by the state government and has been provided with state incentive package. A modern food processing technology park is being set up near Agartala, to give a boost to this sector. Also, an agri export zone for pineapple has been developed. The setting up of food processing units holds a vast potential in Tripura.

Natural gas industry

Immense reserves of natural gas are present in non-associate form in Tripura. The gas is of high quality, with high methane content of up to 97%. Since 1972,ONGC has been actively engaged in exploration activities in the State. Based on the exploration work so far, ONGC has estimated the total gas reserves as prognosticated reserves:

ONGC has stepped up the exploration activities in state, one bid block of Tripura has also been included in third round of bidding under new exploration licensing policy (NELP) of the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas. With this, ONGC is planning to drill five wells in Tripura in Baramura, Rokhia and Sonamura areas. Also it is planned to acquire 2D and 3D seismic data. 3D data will be acquired for the first time in Tripura. Action has also been taken to obtain ISO-14001 certificate for Konaban GCS which is for international standard for environment management systems. It is also planned to upgrade Baramura GCS for higher production capacity. With these ongoing efforts, Tripura holds significant growth in the availability of natural gas in the near future.

Utilisation

Presently, natural gas is being utilised mainly for the Power Projects of the State Government/ NEEPCO (a Central Government Undertaking). The present utilisation of natural gas is about 1.20 MMSCMD. A small quantity of gas is also being used for gas supply to domestic/ commercial/ small industrial consumers. Thus, the balance about 2.80 MMSCMD gas is presently available for setting up industrial projects, using natural gas as feedstock.

Gas Pricing

Tripura offers concessional pricing advantage in setting up a gas-based project of natural gas for northeastern region. The natural gas is available in the northeast at almost half the price as compared to other parts of the country.

Prospects

The availability of superior quality natural gas, at concessional price, offers a great opportunity to prospective investors, to set up gas-based industrial units, using natural gas as feedstock, like urea, methanol, PVC and other projects. Apart from this, Natural gas can also be utilized as a cheaper source of energy for various energy-intensive industrial projects.

Tea Industry

In Tripura the tea industry holds considerable scope for investment. The state has suitable agro-climatic conditions for development of tea plantation. The soils are generally fertile, and have no major problems of toxicities or deficiencies. In Tripura average annual rainfall is about 2100 mm, with a fairly even distribution over the year. The state is also categorized as a traditional tea-growing state - with about 60 Tea Estates and 3,000 small tea growers, producing about 7.5 million kg. of tea every year. This makes Tripura the 5th largest, among the 14 tea producing states, after Assam, West Bengal, TamilNadu & Kerala. There is a considerable scope to increase the area under tea plantation as well as productivity. The total area under plantation at present is 30,852 Ha and the total potential for plantation in the state is 1,00,000 Ha. The tea industry in Tripura is known for its good blending qualities. Some plantations in the state are going for organic production of tea.