AGARTALA, March 7 (TIWN): The consignment of 10, 000 metric tonnes of rice from Kakinda of Andhra Pradesh to arrive here in Tripura by the middle of this month through Ashuganj port in Bangladesh, said Food and Civil Supplies Minister Bhanulal Saha. It is mentionable here that during the year 2014, the first consignment of 10,000 metric tonnes of rice from Kakinada of Andhra Pradesh reached Akhaura International Check Post here through Ashuganj port in Bangladesh.Talking to the reporters here at the civil secretariat recently Food and Civil Supplies Minister Bhanulal Saha said that another 10, 000 MT of rice to arrive here in the state by the middle of the March, 2015. However, Saha further added that at present the existing consignment of rice here in the state can meet the demands for more 87 days. A source in the Transport department said that authorities from Bangladesh have informed that it would take a minimum of 48 hours to start unloading of rice trucks at the Akhaura ICP in Tripura.The average monthly requirement of food grains in the State is reported to be 30,000 MT now. With 10,000 MT transported through Bangladesh.

India has begun using a new trade route via a Bangladeshi port as well as land terrain to ship food grains to the North-east, as the NDA government steps up ties with the neighbor after foreign minister Sushma Swaraj’s recent successful visit to Dhaka. The Ashuganj river port along the river Meghna in Bangladesh's Comilla district is fast emerging as a saviour of landlocked Tripura in terms of transportation of essential commodities from mainstream India across water-route of Bangladesh. The food corporation of India (FCI) has taken an initiative to transport more essential commodities including rice to Tripura across Bangladesh's water-ways from the mainstream Indian states.

However it is mentionable here that Tripura has remained virtually cut off from the rest of the country by railway route because of the ongoing work on mega block and gauge conversion between Lumding-Silchar and Agartala via Badarpur in Karimganj district of Assam. Besides, the tenuous condition of National Highway 44 connecting Agartala and Guwahati has dealt a body blow to the road transport between Tripura and the rest of the country.