AGARTALA: The Planning Commission (PC) has given an investment clearance of Rs 14.89 crore for Rudrasagar Drainage Development Scheme of Tripura to be implemented by next one year, restoring the lost glory of only water palace of eastern India-Neermahal. Human activities around the Rudrasagar Lake in the past 50 years have shrunk the waster body by more than 40 per cent in the last half a century.
The state government had submitted a project detail for development of Rudrasagar following heavy siltation and pollution from the six brick kilns around and Rudrasagar became a pale shadow of its former self, and the palace is in disrepair.
There were only 12 families living in the vicinity of the lake when Martin and Burn handed over the palace to the maharaja in 1930 and now more than 200,000 people are dependant on the lake for fishing and cultivating along the water-bodies, which prompted the state government to seek fund.
The implementation of the scheme would restrict water spread area of the lake during monsoon and maintain water level of 13 metre during winter, tourism officials here on Sunday said, adding water level of 11 metre would also be maintained for boosting the ecology of the area. An area of 2200 hectares with a population of 1000 will benefit from the scheme, they said.
The officials further said the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) had set up North East Cultural Centre in Delhi to promote dissemination of the rich cultural heritage of the north eastern region to the people of national capital region.
It was aimed to facilitate expansion of awareness about the cultural heritage as well as modern expression of creativity of the north eastern states and to provide a platform for youth from the region and other states of India to share creative ideas and other cultural forms. (UNI)