Agartala: Aiming to bring the past glory of the Neermahal, only Lake Palace in Eastern India, the tourism department has finally cleared a comprehensive plan that includes retrofitting of the century-old Neermahal and proper flood management and construction of a ring road covering the Palace and Rudhra Sagar.
The retrofitting work on the Palace is scheduled to kick start in January, next year with an estimated cost of Rs. 7 crore, said Tripura Tourism Minister Ratan Bhowmik while speaking to media here on Thursday.
Besides retrofitting, the Rudra Sagar’s past glory would also be restored by way of dredging out silt.
“We have planned to restore the supply of water from Nayacherra so that water level remains intact in the Rudra Sagar. Rs. 15 crore will be spent to ensure proper flood management in the vicinity of the Neermahal because the Rudra Sagar adds beauty to the Palace,” he pointed out.
Bhowmik said he had a meeting with elected local bodies as well as administrative heads including District Minister KD Chowdhury on how to undertake the massive restoration plan. As per the plan, an amount of Rs. 39 crore is provisioned for constructing ring road covering the entire Neermahal palace.
To execute the plan, the concerned authority will soon be asked to float the tender for constructing 7 km ring road project.
The only Lake Palace in Eastern India, Neermahal was built by the Martin and Burn Company way back in 1930 in the centre of the 5.3 sq km Rudrasagar Lake.
It served as the summer resort of the erstwhile King Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya Bahadur and still draws huge crowd during winter despite the poor condition of the lake which has become shallow because of heavy deposit of silt.