Agartala, Dec 21 (FN Agency) BJP Rajya Sabha member, and former Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb has demanded the government to operationalize the double-lane Feni bridge, connected South Tripura with Chittagong Seaport of Bangladesh, which was opened more than a year ago. The central government had funded the construction of a bridge in Sabroom of South Tripura following a decade-long persuasion of the then-left front government in Tripura aimed at boosting the trade between Northeastern states and South East Asian countries through the state. The Modi government had sanctioned SEZ at Sabroom to bring foreign investment into the state to make it a logistic hub, but wouldn’t progress so far. Speaking in the upper house of the Parliament, Deb on Tuesday said that the bridge was built to facilitate easy connectivity to the Chittagong Seaport to boost trade and economy between Bangladesh and India, especially with northeastern states, however, it’s waiting for being operationalized for a long time, which needs to be functional at the earliest to harness the benefits of Act East policy of India.
“Though there is a Land Customs Station on the Indian side along the Feni bridge, the Bangladesh government has yet to set up the LCS on their side. Tripura government has already taken up the matter with the External Affairs Ministry,” he pointed out, adding that the Bangladesh government agreed to allow the northeastern states to utilize the facilities of Chittagong and Mongla ports, but these could not be possible unless the Feni bridge became operational. The 1.9-km-long bridge, built at a cost of Rs 133 crore over river Feni along South Tripura, is the most significant venture to link India and Bangladesh by road and to access the Chittagong port from India’s northeastern states. With the use of the Chittagong and Mongla sea ports, the distance between Tripura and Kolkata ports would be reduced to less than 100 km from the existing 1,600 km through Meghalaya and Assam. The Feni bridge has connected India’s border town of Sabroom in southern Tripura with Ramgarh in Bangladesh which reduced the distance between Agartala and Chittagong port to only 135 kilometers.