By Firstdespatch Desk May 18, 2025
Agartala, May 18 (FD) Union Minister for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry, and Dairying, Rajib Ranjan Singh, announced today that the Central Government will sanction an Organic Fisheries Cluster for Tripura to boost fish production. This will be the second such cluster in the country after Sikkim.
The Union Minister laid the foundation stone of the Integrated Aqua Park and inaugurated the Fish Festival at Rabindra Satabarshiki Bhavan in Agartala.
Singh stated that over the last 10 years, Indian states, including Tripura, have witnessed remarkable development under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“Prime Minister Modi has given special attention to the development of the North-East region to ensure it progresses at par with the rest of the country. So far, we have sanctioned a total of 11 Integrated Aqua Parks, out of which three are in the North-East. Around 3 crore people across the country are involved in fish production, contributing about 9% to the national economy, compared to 4% from agriculture,” he said.
The Union Minister also noted that in 2013-14, fish production in India was only 96 lakh metric tonnes, which has impressively increased to 184.02 lakh metric tonnes in 2023-24.
Tripura’s Fisheries Minister, Sudhangshu Das, said that the state has seen an increase of 5,000 metric tonnes in fish production over the last three years.
“Currently, we produce 86,000 metric tonnes of fish against an annual demand of 1.7 lakh metric tonnes. To meet the shortfall, we import fish from West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, and neighbouring Bangladesh,” he said.
Das added that the state government will construct a modern fish market at Golbazar in Agartala at a cost of ₹38 crore. FD JK