Thanks to repair on war-footing of a 20-km portion of an alternative highway on its inter-state border with Assam, supply of essential commodities including diesel, petrol LPG and food grains has started returning to normal to the landlocked state of Tripura after more than six weeks. While over 100 tankers carrying diesel and petrol had moved in to Tripura through the repaired Kathaltoli-Chankhira stretch on Friday and Saturday, 40 more moved in on Sunday, with Tripura North district magistrate Sandeep Mahatme saying that petroleum products supply to the state had reached “normal” now. The situation was so bad in the past few weeks that as most petrol pumps went dry the authorities had to resort to rationing of fuel. Tripura had in the past few days witnessed strong protests by petroleum consumers as well as opposition political parties over the fuel shortage. On Saturday, even as 63 petrol and 40 diesel tankers had moved in to the state, Trinamool Congress workers blocked roads, burnt effigies of ministers and demonstrated against the government for its alleged failure to maintain smooth supply. Interestingly, while the 20-km ‘bad patch’ of the alternative highway on the inter-state border is situated inside Assam, Tripura North DM Mahatme said it was the public works department from his district which carried out the repair. “The NHIDCL provided our district with over Rs 50 lakhs, with which we completed the repair on a war-footing in just six days by procuring 380 truckloads of stone chips, sand and other material and engaging eight JCBs along with over 100 workmen,” Mahatme told The Indian Express over the telephone from Dharmanagar. But, even as the alternative highway – which is currently being used only for passing fuel tankers – is back in use, National Highway 8, the main lifeline of Tripura continues to be in bad shape despite repeated pleas by the state government to the Centre. About one km of NH8 between Churaibari and Loarpoa – again inside Assam territory – has mostly remained unusable since the rains began in May. The Assam PWD has started repairing it last week, but officials in Tripura said the progress was slow. With the major potholes filled and the knee-deep slush removed, vehicles however have started taking NH8 too. “We are lucky that there has been no major rain in the area in the past one week. Both roads had totally shut down from July 18 to 22 because of incessant rains. Now that the Kathaltoli-Chankhira portion of the alternative highway is through and NH8 is also slowly back in shape, the state can hope to stock as much fuel and other essential items required for the remaining months of the rainy season,” Mahatme said.
