A three-day World Bank review visit of the Tripura Rural Economic Growth and Service Delivery Project (TRESP) began on Monday at Pragna Bhawan, Agartala, with a high-level review meeting focusing on project performance, livelihood interventions, institutional strengthening and the next phase of implementation.
The meeting was chaired by TRESP Project Director Subhashis Das, with World Bank Task Team Leader Preeti Kumar, along with Amit Arora, Souvik Mitra, Nilanjana Gupta, Kamlesh and other members of the World Bank team participating in the discussions.
During the review, according to a press release, the World Bank Task Team Leader Preeti Kumar appreciated the progress made under TRESP and stated that the project is one of the best-performing World Bank-funded projects in Northeast India.
She advised the project team and stakeholder departments to maintain the momentum of progress across all sectors and continue focusing on effective implementation and delivery of project outcomes at the field level.
The review placed particular emphasis on strengthening Producer Groups (PGs), Viability Gap Funding (VGF), Cluster Level Federations (CLFs) and Community Managed Training Centres (CMTCs). The discussions focused on moving PGs beyond their formation stage towards sustainable business activities, strengthening market linkages, improving access to working capital and ensuring effective utilisation of VGF support.
The meeting also reviewed the progress of CLFs and CMTCs, including financial management, maintenance of records, regular monitoring and capacity-building activities. CMTCs were discussed as potential local knowledge and training hubs, particularly for supporting women farmers and rural entrepreneurs.
Project Director Subhashis Das highlighted the importance of taking forward three strategic areas—capacity building through SIPARD, participatory Village Development Plans (VDPs), and research-oriented activities on tribal development. He stressed the need to strengthen training programmes for government officials through SIPARD to enhance implementation and service-delivery capacity in tribal areas.
He also emphasised the preparation of Village Development Plans across the 23 TRESP operational blocks, along with the development and implementation of 23 Model VDPs. The participatory VDP process is aimed at bringing community priorities and local development requirements into an integrated village-level planning framework.
The Project Director further underlined the importance of research-based activities to generate evidence on tribal development, such research, he noted, can provide valuable inputs for future planning and development interventions.
The World Bank team's three-day visit will now move into the field. From 29 September, the team will visit project sites across different RD Blocks to assess the implementation of TRESP activities directly on the ground. The team will interact with beneficiaries, Producer Groups, community institutions, field officials and other stakeholders to understand implementation progress and field-level experiences.
The World Bank team will also conduct intensive review meetings with stakeholder departments during the visit. These discussions will focus on sector-wise progress, implementation challenges, emerging outcomes and measures required to sustain and accelerate the project's performance.
The three-day review therefore combines strategic assessment at the state level with direct field verification and stakeholder interaction, providing an opportunity to further strengthen implementation across sectors.
With the World Bank recognising TRESP among the better-performing World Bank-supported projects in Northeast India and advising the project to sustain its momentum, the ongoing review is expected to further consolidate the project's efforts towards stronger livelihoods, participatory village development, improved institutional capacity and sustainable tribal development in Tripura.