Agartala, March 1 (IANS): Trade between bordering Tripura and Bangladesh increased to a whooping over 94.04 per cent in five years, Tripura Finance Minister Pranajit Singha Roy said on Friday.

Presenting the state budget for 2024-25 on the first day of the 3-day budget session of the Tripura assembly, the Finance Minister said that the volume of trade between Tripura and Bangladesh has increased substantially from Rs 390.68 crore in 2017-18 to Rs 758.09 crore in 2022-23.

The value of exports from Tripura to Bangladesh has gone up to Rs 121.37 crore in 2023-24.

Singha Roy told the house that the Tripura State Electricity Corporation has been implementing three major power projects under Asian Development Bank (ADB) funding, World Bank funding and funding from the Central government.

He said that two externally aided projects -- Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Indo-German Development Cooperation (IGDC) -- are being implemented in the forest and livelihood sectors and one new project named Enhancing Landscape and Ecosystem Management Project (ELEMENT) funded by World Bank will be launched soon with project cost of Rs 1764.94 crore.

The Minister told the house that since 2018-19, at least 2,46,339 farmers have benefited from 'Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana' in the state.

An amount of Rs 640.40 crore has been deposited in the bank accounts of 2,46,339 beneficiary farmers.

He said that over 12.46 lakh farmers' crop of the state has been covered under the 'Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana' and 3,29,860 Kisan Credit Cards have been distributed among the farmers of the state with the farmers so far have received total loan of Rs 1649 crore under Kisan Credit Card.

He said that under the 'Chief Minister's Rubber Mission', 600 hectares of rubber plantation has been done during 2023-24 and 916 tribal families have been benefited under various income generating activities.

The 'Third International buyer-seller meet' for Agar tree products was held at Agartala in October last year Agarwood growers' conclave was held at Dharmanagar, the Minister told the members.

He said that the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has given clearance for first time for export of Agar oil to Dubai from Tripura.

In the last 5 years, 47,600 women Self Help Groups (SHGs) have been formed under Tripura Rural Livelihood Mission in the state with 4.66 lakhs rural women are associated with 51,254 SHGs in the state.

Till January this year, 83,000 women associated with various SHGs in the state have become 'Lakhpati Didis' and the state government has set a target for making 1.14 lakh more women in different SHGs to improve their annual income more than Rs one lakh.

The target will be achieved within 2025-26, Singha Roy stated.

He said that during 2024-25, the state government would provide a total amount of Rs 698.68 crore to the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC).