Agartala: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has agreed in principle to provide Rs 8,000 crore in the next five years to Tripura in a phased manner to fund several development projects. The decision was arrived at between a strategic Partnership Mission of ADB in Tripura and the state government in the past two days.

Officials said ADB has so far sanctioned both grants and loans in several projects since 2005 but the proposed plan of funding in the infrastructure sector would be the biggest external aid for the state in a committed period of time. The ADB’s decision was the result of a series of meetings of the delegations led by its executive director Sameer Khare and county director Takeo Konishi with chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb, deputy chief minister Jishnu Dev Varma and senior officials of the state where the CM had requested the bank to help the government in priority sector development.
In addition, ADB has also agreed to provide technical assistance and support for diagnostic studies for the development agenda and activities of the state government, the officials said, adding that in the meeting, projects requiring regional cooperation with Bangladesh have also been identified and decided to be taken forward with the consent of the governments of both the countries.

Sources said Deb, in the meeting with ADB, highlighted that his government is working for the socio-economic development of the state by prioritizing health, industry, education, transport, tourism, agriculture, and infrastructure sectors.
The CM also sought the support of ADB to assist his government in building a drug-free Tripura and apprised it that a road map of development till 2047 has been prepared for the overall development of the state in the next 25 years where the government required the participation of ADB.