Tripura prioritises development of Kamalpur-Santirbazar road as national highway
Tripura is prioritising the Kamalpur-Santirbazar road for national highway status, aiming to enhance connectivity and socio-economic growth. The Centre has agreed in principle to develop this and three other highways in the state.
- Feb 17, 2025,
- Updated Feb 17, 2025, 3:15 PM IST
The Tripura government is prioritising the development of the Kamalpur to Santirbazar Road as national highway, an official said on February 17.
At present, Tripura has six national highways with a total length of 923.31 km and the Centre has agreed 'in principle' to develop four more national highways in the northeastern state, the official said.
"Although four highways are supposed to be developed as national highway in principle by the Centre, the state is giving priority to the 148 km Kamalpur to Santirbazar road to get NH sanction from the Centre", chief engineer of national highways, P Jamatia told PTI.
Jamatia said the state government is giving priority to the road between Kamalpur to Santirbazar as the 148 km road will be a game changer for several tribal habitations in three districts - Dhalai, Gomati and South Tripura - as far as socio-economic activities are concerned.
The existing distance from Ambassa (Dhalai district) to Sabroom (South Tripura) through the proposed national highway will be reduced from 300 km to 200 km, he said, adding that the proposed national highway will also touch many tourist spots like Dumbur, Narikel Kunja, Chhabimura before connecting Sabroom, the state's Southernmost border subdivision.
While Dumbur is considered a tourist site because of its waterbody, Chhabimura is famous for its panels of rock carving on steep mountain wall on the bank of the Gomati river.
The Centre has already developed Sabroom as a gateway to South East Asia by constructing Maitri Setu, integrated check post, Special Economic Zone (SEZ) as the place is close to Bangladesh's Chittagong sea port. The distance between Sabroom and Chittagong port is around 70 km.
"The government is trying to get sanctions for developing the 148 km road as national highway. The estimated cost will be Rs 2,000 crore. Once the green signal is received from the Centre, we will prepare a Detailed Project Report (DPR). It will take only six months to prepare the DPR for the national highway project", he said.