Agartala, December 19: In a bid to develop tourism infrastructure in the northeastern state, India and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have signed a $4.21 million project readiness financing (PRF) facility yesterday.
This is probably the first time that PRF facility for a state in the northeastern region of India. The signatories to the PRF for Tripura Urban and Tourism Development Project were Additional Secretary, in the Finance Ministry Dr. C. S. Mohapatra and Country Director of ADB’s India Resident Mission Takeo Konishi.
Dr. Mohapatra further added that the facility is going to support the Government of Tripura’s priorities of improving urban services and tourism infrastructure through holistic planning by developing key infrastructure investment projects and related reforms in these sectors that will help boost economic development.
The facility aims to ensure high readiness of ensuing infrastructure projects through feasibility studies, preparing detailed engineering designs, and capacity building of state-level agencies while ensuring climate and disaster resilience, inclusiveness, and sustainability of subprojects.
Inadequate urban infrastructure and low institutional capacity of urban local bodies (ULBs) have impeded urbanization-led growth in Tripura. The PRF will help finance the preparation of integrated infrastructure development plans for 7 districts headquarter towns (DHT) and 13 ULBs focused on water supply, sanitation, stormwater drainage, urban roads, and urban amenities.
The state’s tourism growth is also hindered by inadequate infrastructure and lack of planned activities. The PRF will support the state government’s objectives of improving the contribution of tourism to the economy and will support the development of integrated tourism infrastructure plans. These include provisioning of amenities and improving road connectivity to the tourist destinations together with marketing and promotion strategies.