With the focus on local economic activities, the state Government and stakeholders should plan for the need for developing the regional production. Post production the biggest challenge faced by any producer is the accessibility of the market for which transportation plays a vital role. Transportation by road has always been a high cost thereby reducing the opportunity of accessing bigger or larger markets.

Here railways can play a very important catalyst in making the local economy grow and make local producers sustainable in the long run.  Transportation through rail logically should be cost effective. The Indian railway network is one of the most vast and spread out.

To this effort, on March 24, senior officials from the Lumding division of Northeast Frontier Railway organised meetings with the Tripura Government officials of the Gomati district and West Tripura district to discuss cheaper transportation solutions for produces of Tripura. In the meeting, ADM(G), Gomati District Pankaj Chakraborty, officials from Rubber Board, Forest Department, Fisheries Department, Horticulture department, and merchants participated and gave their inputs. Area Manager, Badarpur of N.F. Railway gave a presentation on various schemes of freight and parcel business that are being offered by Indian Railways for the benefit of various stakeholders.

One interesting data that came up during the post-presentation discussion, where K.H. Nassar, Dy. Rubber Production Commissioner (I/C), Rubber Board, Udaipur informed that in Gomati District of Tripura produced 15,645 Metric Tons of rubber last year and as per demand some portion is being transported by roadways to places like Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Delhi and Goa. This indicates how produces of North East can be in demand across the country than otherwise.

Similarly in the meeting with the district officials of the West Tripura district which was held at Agartala on March 24, officials from the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries, Rubber Board, and merchants apart from the ADM of the district were present in the discussion.  

Here again, Arunabha Majumdar, GM, Manimalayar Rubber Pvt. Ltd., informed that last year’s total rubber production in Tripura State was 90714 MT and is likely to cross 1 lakh MT this year. Gopal Malla, Dy. Director, Horticulture, Government of Tripura informed that Tripura has the potential of transporting 10 metric tons of pineapple per week. And such items can be transported through refrigerated containers because of their lesser shelf life.

N. F. Railway officials informed about various activities and facilities that are being made available for the improvement of the local economy by providing cheaper modes of transportation through railways. The railway is also the most eco-friendly mode of transportation.

The Railway officials discussed the handling of goods traffic, the feasibility of transportation of automobile traffic and other commodities, and their benefit. It is to be noted that farmers can transport their agricultural products directly to all parts of the country through Kisan Rail services. 50% subsidy is being provided for the transportation of fruits and vegetables through Kisan Rail.

The local administration can make use of this information and handhold local producers and utilise Railways which is providing various incentive & subsidy-related schemes to make parcel business more customer-friendly.

This initiative by N. F. Railway is making all-out efforts to enable ease of doing business and to provide better facilities to its customers and various stakeholders indicate the various engagements taking place across the NE region and state governments should encourage an entrepreneurial culture right to the last mile.

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