- Abhijit Nath, NET Correspondent, Tripura
Agartala, September 03, 2022 : Tripura is expected to receive a larger share of ATMA’s (Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association) committed investment of Rs 1,100 crore in the entire north eastern region of India in escalating the production scale. ATMA is waiting for the state’s new rubber policy for fund disbursement allocated for Tripura, said Special Secretary of the Industries and Commerce department Abhishek Chandra on Friday.
“A mini-project on rubber mission is going to be launched soon in the state concentrating on augmentation and stimulating processing. Upgrading the quality of rubber produced in Tripura and supporting the industrial sector are the main objectives of the project. Industries willing to set up production units of gloves, syringes, etc. based on rubber would be encouraged under this project”, said Special Secretary Chandra.
He said “In Tripura, rubber plantations are spread over 86,892 hectares and 90,712 TPA (Thermoplastic Polyamide) is the total production of rubber. While, rubber plantation will be done in more 30,000 hectares of land under the Chief Minister’s rubber mission. Hence, ATMA is waiting for the policy to be formulated and then, it is expected that the state will get a larger share of the committed investment as Tripura is the second largest producer of rubber across the country.”
Sources said that the rubber sheets produced here are of low quality which is a big problem for the state and that is why funds are not released. In this regard, Chandra said “The draft Rubber Mission is done and will be made public soon in sorting out the problems. A cabinet’s green signal will solve the matter and make it official. At present, I have some restrictions to disclose the entirety of the project.”
In the meantime, the Skill development department has trained 600 people recently on scientific rubber and the department will continue to provide training to all those people working out in their fields.