In a major decision the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways approved a Rs. 200-crore project for road communication networks in the state. The central funs was assured when Chief Minister Dr. Manik Saha met Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari and MoS Gen (Retd) V K Singh in New Delhi on Monday.
Chief Minister said the fund was approved under the ‘Central Road Infrastructure Fund for Construction’ during a meeting.
The Chief Minister said from the meeting itself Union Minister Nitin Gadkari instructed the concerned officials of the NHIDCL for inclusion of 148 kms long Tripura’s Kamalpur-Ambassa- Gandacherra- Amarpur road , 44 kms long Udaipur- Sonamura- Comilla (Bangladesh) road and 25 kms long Agartala bypass road under the Bharatmala 2.0 project.
This was an important decision as the ambitious Bharatmala happened to be the Union government’s one of the most important projects.
Apart from that Gadkari also instructed starting the works for converting long awaited Agartala-Teliamura segment of NH-08 into four lanes and Khowai to Sabroom national highway via Teliamura and Amarpur.
The Chief Minister also called on Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri and discussed matters relating to Ease of Living in urban areas. The agenda included among others issues of Water Supply, Sewerage and Housing in urban areas of Tripura.
Dr Saha said, the Union Minister agreed to look into the request for sanctioning additional funds for the Light House Project, 6000 Sewerage Connections from Battala Sewerage Treatment, sanction of water supply schemes in eight smaller towns under AMRUT 2.0 and sanction of additional 6523 houses under Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana Urban. These additional sanctions from MoHUA would help in improving ‘Ease of Living’ in urban areas of Tripura State.
The Chief Minister also met Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways & Ayush Sarbananda Sonowal at Transport Bhawan.
The Union Minister, according to Dr. Saha, has given assurances to set up a 50-bedded Ayush hospital and 50 Health and Wellness Centres in Tripura. He also assured full cooperation in dredging of the River and development of waterways Connectivity with the mainland.
After the meeting, Sonowal tweeted, “Had a good meeting with Tripura CM Shri @DrManikSaha2 ji in New Delhi. Discussed development of Ayush and inland waterways. A frontier state, Tripura holds huge potential to further India’s economic growth via these important sectors.”
Dr Saha also met Union Minister Arjun Munda and discussed about setting up of two more Ekalavya schools and financial assistance for smart classes, math lab, English lab etc in 211 schools in the state. Dr Saha in his Facebook status said that the minister agreed to look into the matter positively.
Dr Saha also had meetings with BJP chief J.P. Nadda and party national general secretary (org) B.L. Santosh in New Delhi and discussed state’s organizational issues.
