India to construct bridge over river Feni in Tripura

AGARTALA: To boost bilateral trade between the two countries, India will construct a four-lane bridge on Feni river in Tripura that would connect the state's South district with Chittagong division in Bangladesh, official sources said today.

The decision to construct the bridge with four-lane facilities was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Chief Minister Manik Sarkar and Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd (IL&FS), the sources said.

Earlier technocrats of the two neighbouring countries had completed the survey for constructing the 150-metre long bridge and placed their survey reports to the concerned ministries which approved the proposal.

Approximately, Rs 73 crore would be spent to construct the bridge which would be borne by the Tripura government, the sources said.

Meanwhile, the central government has agreed to construct a Land Custom Station (LCS) at Sabroom adjacent to the neighbouring country.

Tripura Minister for Industries and Commerce Jitendra Chowdhury said after the construction of the bridge and the LCS at Sabroom would be completed, it would be a corridor for trade and commerce between Bangladesh and India's North-East.

During a visit to Dhaka in January 2010, Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar took up the matter with Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina that that they wanted to build a bridge over the river Feni as the business community of the Indian North-Eastern region wanted to use the Chittagong seaport.

She had agreed to the proposal but made it clear that India would bear all expenses for construction of the bridge, the sources said.