Infrastructure Issues:

A. Railways i. Completion of Meter Gauge railway line upto Agartala by March 2007 and conversion to Broad Gauge by March 2009 as part of National Project: Kumarghat - Agartala New Line (109 Kms) has been approved as National Project and it has been decided that the funds required for completion of the project over and above the normal budgetary support will be provided as an additionality. An outlay of Rs.70 crore has been provided has been provided during 2005-06 from gross budgetary support for the project. M/o Finance has also provided additional funds to the tune of Rs.10 crore over the normal budgetary support for the project. The section between Kumarghat and Manu (20 Kms) has already been commissioned on 27.12.2002. Chairman, Railway Board informed that the meter gauge line would be completed by March 2007 and the broad gauge by March 2009 as per schedule. ii. Providing Railway connectivity beyond Agartala upto Sabroom for access to Chittagong Port: An updating survey for construction of a new line from Agartala to Sabroom (110 Kms) has been included in the Budget 2004-05. The survey has been completed and as per the survey report, the cost of 110 Km long lines has been assessed as Rs.556.88 crore with negative ROR (-) 28.0%. The report is under examination. Chairman, Railway Board mentioned that with such negative ROR it is very difficult to recover the running cost of the trains. He suggested that the project might be taken up as a National Project considering its strategic nature. Chief Secretary, Tripura stated that it is difficult to quantify any return at this stage since industrialization of the area will follow the establishment of railway infrastructure. iii. Establishment of Railway link between Agartala and Akhaura (Bangladesh) for direct communication from Tripura to Kolkata: Of the proposed rail link with a total length of 10.3 Km

between Agartala (Tripura) and Akhaura (Bangladesh), Indian railways have already completed the engineering survey for the portion of 5.4 Km lying in the Indian territory (West Tripura) in 2000. In the InterGovernment Railway Meeting held in New Delhi on 13 - 15 December 2004, the Bangladesh delegation informed that the survey work on their side of the border is under process and the matter of linking Agartala-Akhaura would be taken up once the survey work is completed.

B. Highways i. Requirement of major stabilization operation for NH-44 with special reference to Patharkhandi (Assam) and Sonapur (Maghalaya): At present there are two railway crossings between Km. 255 to 260 (Patharkhandi town area) at a distance of about 1.50 Kms of NH-44. The construction of Railway Over-Bridges at these level crossings is not feasible, as no space is available for diversion of existing traffic within Patharkhandi town. Besides, NH-44 has been raised above the Highest Flood Level within Patharkhandi town, but the levels of railway lines remain at the lower level. Due to this, level crossing has become opening for floodwater to enter on NH-44 during floods. Moreover, Longai River flows very close to NH-44 near Patharkhandi town and water level in this river is always higher than the level of railway line during monsoon. In order to avoid the railway crossing and submergence problem, a bypass of about 6 Kms length is required to bypass Patharkhandi town in Assam, as proposed by the Consultant. As regards the problem of Sonapur area, which is due to landslides, the approval for consultancy contract has been given by M/o Shipping, Road Transport & Highways to evolve short-term measures. The long-term solution lies in providing a tunnel. Investigations for tunnel are being taken by NHAI as part of the

widening of NH-44 to four-lane under NHDP-III. The 1.5 Kms. tunnel would cost Rs.180 crore and would reduce the distance by 8 Kms. Meantime, BRO is making all out efforts for keeping the road trafficworthy. ii. Four laning of NH-44 terminating at Sabroom under National Highway Development Project and its alignment along the railway tracks: The alignment of National Highway Development Project including Golden Quadrilateral has already been frozen and the projects are in the advanced stage of progress. As such inclusion of proposal of four laning on NH-44 under Golden Quadrilateral would not be possible. However, four laning of NH-44 from Churaibari (Assam/Tripura border) to Agartala aggregating to a length of 195 Kms. is included under NHDP phase-III to be implemented by NHAI. The section from Agartala to Sabroom on NH-44 has been proposed for its two-lane facility under Special Accelerated Road Development Programme in the NE Region (SARDP-NE) frame by M/o Shipping, RT & Highways. Prime Minister during his visit to Tripura has already announced on 29.10.2005 to undertake four laning of Churaibari-AgartalaSabroom section of NH-44 entirely falling in Tripura and realigning it along the railway track. This requires modification in the scope of the phase B of SARDP-NE, which has been included in the draft CCEA Note incorporating various issues of Phase A modification of Phase B and merging of Phase C with Phase B. iii. Sanctioning of alternative NH from Kukital to Sabroom: As regards construction of 310 Kms long alternate NH for Kukital to Sabroom, M/o Shipping, Road Transport & Highways has informed that Kukital is very close to Churaibari. Kukital is not an important place also. With the improvement of Churaibari-Agartala-Sabroom section to four lane standards (or even to two lane standards), the traffic levels in the area would hardly justify an alternative alignment. So, at present, there is no proposal for an alternative NH as proposed by Govt. of Tripura. Secondly, the Ministry is not contemplating

declaration

of

new

National

Highways as emphasis is on the

development /improvement of the existing National Highways network in the country. However, conversion of State road into National Highway may be considered at an appropriate time in a limited manner. C. Air Service i. Introduction of regular A-320 Airbus in the morning by replacing ATR on the Kolkata- Agartala sector: Indian Airlines does not have requisite aircraft resources to operate A-320 on Kolkata - Agartala sector in the morning hours. Alliance Air, a wholly owned subsidiary of Indian Airlines, is in the process of replacing its B737 fleet with A319 aircraft. The B737 services to/from Agartala operated by Alliance Air will be replaced with A319 services by end of the year. ii. Shifting of ATR hub from Kolkata to Guwahati: One ATR aircraft has already been positioned at Guwahati with effect from 28.7.2004. The present positioning of the ATR aircraft (3 in Kolkata and 1 at Guwahati) has enabled Alliance Air to provide more frequencies to high traffic density routes such as Kolkata - Agartala, Kolkata - Silchar, Kolkata-Guwahati, Kolkata- Aizwal & Silchar-Imphal. The demand for better connectivity for the North East stations to metro cities via Guwahati & Kolkata is substantially fulfilled by the present other aircraft deployment authorities. pattern. However, Kolkata is the Civil approved Aviation maintenance base for the ATR aircraft as duly certified by DGCA and regulatory Secretary, informed that Indian Airlines have been asked to initiate a process of local recruitment & training so that an ATR Hub can be created at Guwahati. iii. Early operationalisation of Kailashahar, Manikbhandar (Kamalpur) Airports: Kamalpur and Kailashahar Airports in Tripura belong to AAI and both are not in operation for more than a decade and need major infrastructure development. AAI will consider operationalization of these airports when there is a demand from Schedule Airline operators for operating their services through these

airports. At present a Helicopter service is operating from Kailashahar airport on demand basis by Pawan Hans Ltd. iv. Providing direct connectivity to Delhi: There was a need for connecting the State capital directly to Delhi by a regular air service as has been done for other State capitals. D. Power i. Support by Central Govt. for Setting up of 750 MW Gas Based Power Project at Palatana, South Tripura by ONGC: M/s Tripura Power Development Corporation Pvt. Ltd. (TPDC) earlier proposed to M/o Power for issue of in principle approval for mega power status for 1000 MW combined cycle gas turbine power generation project at Palatana. Subsequently, due to transmission constraints, they proposed to scale down the capacity of the project to 750 MW in Phase-I and requested M/o Power to keep the proposal of granting mega project status in abeyance. M/s TPDC have undertaken the Environment Impact Evaluation Studies and preparation of DPR.
ii. Setting up of 280 MW Power Project at Monarchak by

NEEPCO: PIB had recommended Monarchak Gas based Power Project (280 MW) in Tripura for consideration of CCEA in May 2004, which has not been possible as M/o Finance has expressed the view that the project be kept in abeyance. In the meantime, ONGC has declined to supply gas for the project at a price as indicated by PIB and asked for market price.