Thanks to the initiative of an engineer in the PWD of Tripura government, the spotlight was on the poor state of affairs in the state and the whole of the north east region. An international conference on ‘NE India — a gateway to the South East Asia: Prospects for Infrastructure Development’ saw many dignitaries and experts participate in large numbers.

The plight of Tripura as detailed by its chief minister, Manik Sarkar, lies in a lack of development of tourism, roads, industries. As mentioned, terrorism in the north-east can be controlled by eliminating the frustration of the tribal people by offering them the required development of infrastructure.

Shortage of Central funds has been an oft-cited grouse but of late there has been some improvement. The Centre on its part has been observing that the state has been under-utilising funds.

Connectivity via roads, railway and waterways came in for discussion with delegates discussing the use of Brahamputra and Barrack rivers as national waterways, etc. The need for extending the four lane road and broad gauge railway line not only up to Agartala, but its extension up to Sabroom town at the farthest corner of Tripura has been long felt. This would help connect the entire NE region to Chittagong port and as the chief minister said, immensely add to the development and importance of Bangladesh.

The poor air connectivity of the region is another problem. For going from Aagartala to the neighbouring capital Aizwal in Mizoram, one has to go to Kolkata from Agartala and then fly back to Aizwal, wasting national time and money.

As noted by Gurusharan Kaur, a delegate, the very fundamental for development of tourism lies in “one having to go out and selling instead of waiting for someone to come and buy!” Right now a large section of the tourists are Bengalis as the air link of 50 minutes from Kolkata makes the trip fast. If they too are required to take a round of Cape of Good Hope ie Guwahati by train and bus through hilly tribal belt to reach Agartala in about 40 to 45 hours, Tripura may lose out on them as well.
It is reported that when a travel journalist expressed his interest to visit Tripura, the secretary of information, culture and tourism department noted that, “if he is keen to do so he may come to Tripura at his own risk and expenses and do so”.

It is therefore imperative that the chief minister will have to set his house in order before expecting any development. And that means setting right such attitudes.

Most people may even not be aware of the fact that the legendary musician Sachin Deb Burman hailed from the royal family of Tripura. His love and marriage with the danseuse Meera Debi caused a rift in the royal family forcing him to move to Kolkata and subsequently to Mumbai where he went on to become a musician of repute.

The octogenarian lady Meera Debi has been living in an old age home “Saran” at Vasi in Mumbai. Very recently the ICAT department of Tripura realised her plight and offered a Rs 1 lakh lifetime maintenance!

Similarly, the royal house offered by the Maharaja of Tripura for stay of Noble Laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore during his visits to Agartala now lies in shambles, being occupied by the watchmen and their families. One wonders if the tourism department thinks of these as heritage sites at all.