Tripura government is contemplating a plan to set up a ‘Tea Museum’ in Durgabari tea estate as part of its well-defined plan to boost tea tourism.
According to a government press release, several initiatives have been taken to create tourist spots in tea gardens to attract tourists and expand tea tourism.
The initiatives have been discussed in length in a review meeting of the Tea Promotion Board chaired by Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb on Monday.
The release said, Tripura is holding the 6th position in the country in terms of tea production.
The Chief Minister in the review meeting said the government-run tea gardens are moving towards a profitable position and necessary assistance needs to be provided to the private tea gardens facing loss or having minimal productivity for their growth and profit.
He also passed an instruction to the authorities concerned for taking necessary steps after knowing about the condition of private tea gardens from their owners. He said both government and private tea growers should be encouraged to increase the production.
According to the press release, the state has 54 tea gardens, 2866 small tea growers, 9,048 tea workers at present. Besides, 24 tea processing units are there in the state– three are run by the government, five are run by the cooperatives and the remaining 16 are private run.
Rejuvenation of tea gardens, infrastructural development, development of tea tourism, continuous power supply in tea factories, pipeline gas connection and steps to upgrade standard of living of tea workers were the important issues discussed in the review meeting.
Secretary of industry and commerce department Prashant Kumar Goyal, Secretary of revenue department Tanushree Debbarma, Rural Development secretary Soumya Gupta, Director of Industries and Commerce T.K Chakma, Tripura Tea Development Board Chairman Santosh Saha and other officials were present in the review meeting.
