Agartala, May 6: The state’s capital and its fringe areas are confronting a major crisis of fish as the Bangladesh government has undertaken the task of widening the narrow Agartala checkpost- Akhaura Road since yesterday.
Though there are four other land custom stations in Tripura — at Srimantapur in Sonamura, Raghna in Dharmanagar, Khowai in Khowai and Muhuripur in Belonia subdivisions, it is the Akhaura checkpost, 3km west of Agartala town, through which the bulk of the export-import between Tripura and Bangladesh takes place.
Fish is a major item of import from Bangladesh.
“The Bangladesh government will upgrade the narrow 7km road between Akhaura checkpost behind Agartala and the Akhaura railway station in Bangladesh within 10 days by working on an emergency basis day and night; hence, import and export of fish and other items will remain suspended for 10 days,” the president of the Fish Importers’ Association, Ranjit Das, said.
He admitted that because of persistent demand, prices of locally available fish will soar “but we cannot help”. Already, prices of common varieties of fish available locally have registered a steep hike. “In the days to come, prices will rise because the truckloads of fish imported from Andhra Pradesh cannot make up for the shortfall,” said Das.
Despite tall claims made by the state government and certification obtained from the Centre, Tripura remains in deficit in fish production. According to a data made available by the state fisheries department, the annual demand for fish in the state stands at 43,280 tonnes. There is, however, a production of 30,840.52 tonnes of cultured fish and 1989.36 tonnes of captured fish. The gap is made up through imports from Bangladesh and Andhra Pradesh.
“But the stoppage of import from Bangladesh has hit the state hard as fish from there has got variety while Andhra Pradesh supplies only a single variety of rui (Labio rohita) fish,” Das said. He added that for the 10 days during which import will remain suspended people having celebratory occasions at home will be in “deep trouble”.
