AGARTALA, July 26 (TIWN): With the neighbouring Bangladesh agreeing in principle to open up its market for the rest of the country the Left ruled land-locked Tripura has come up as a business hub. Very soon Tripura could be known as the gateway to the northeastern states and also the rest of the country. The border trade between the Tripura and Bangladesh has already came up as a boon for the NE states with the Bangladesh government had recently agreed to open up its high speed internet connection by which the NE states are all set to get at least 10 Gbps connection after Mumbai and Chennai.According to the experts the border trade between India and Bangladesh through Tripura is expected to touch a very hefty profit in the next two to three years.He informed that according to the Business experts and Statistics there is around Rs 10 crore worth of exports from Tripura which include mainly handicraft materials, bamboo and silk by ships through Kolkata and Mumbai port. Keeping in view of the Tripura, a business hub and agreeing to the proposal of Tripura Left front government the Bangladesh government is readying the 10 Gbps internet connection for the NE states and rest of the states of the country through Tripura which waits to be the third international internet gateway.

The change of 'Look-East Policy' to 'Act East Policy' to make the North-Eastern region a trade and business hub of South East Asia is beloved to have brought trade package from neighbouring Bangladesh. The understanding between the Tripura Government and the Govt. of India has signed abundance of agreement with the Bangladesh government in the recent past which too believed to have made the land-locked Tripura an international business hub.

The eight NE states Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim - share international boundaries with China, Myanmar, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Nepal.  

With the Bangladesh soon to receive 100 MW of power from the Left ruled Tripura the Govt. of India is all set to receive 10 Gbps high speed internet connection through Tripura. Besides, the experts claimed the ongoing border trade between Tripura and Bangladesh had enhanced towards sustainable livelihood of Tripura farmers.

Tripura is eyeing forward to open more two border haats very shortly to meet the demand of the farmers. The third border haat in Tripura to be open up at Unakoti District. After Srinagar and Kamalsagar the third border haat in Tripura would be set and prior to kick off the construction work the administrative level meeting would be held with the Bangladesh counterpart followed by the survey report.

The official said survey report would comprise of objections and no objections by the locals at Kalisahar Hiracherra and would also include land assessment.

The Joint Boundary Working Group (JBWG) of India and Bangladesh on July 23 held a meeting at Dhaka to implement the Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) ratified in the last Parliament session whereas another meeting between the delegations of two nations is in the pipeline expected to be held on July 27 to review the ingoing works of laying optical fibres for internet connectivity between Tripura and Bangladesh.

And on yet another feather to the northeast Tripura’s transportation the first ever elevated rail link with the Bangladesh is in the pipeline and is expected to be commissioned by 2017. The project has recently got a final nod to link Bangladesh with Agartala and rest of the NE states.

Experts believe that once the project is being commissioned the people of both Bangladesh and Tripura can take a travel to rest part of the country. The 15-km-long Agartala-Akhaura railway route would connect Indian Railways with the Bangladesh Railways through the North-East which would improve connectivity and boost trade between the two countries.

The 1,700 km distance between Agartala and Kolkata through chicken neck near Siliguri would be reduced to 350 km if passengers from here could move through Bangladesh.