Agartala, Oct 8 (IANS): Bangladeshi garment traders are keen on doing business in northeast India and the Tripura government is ready to provide logistical support to them, an Indian diplomat said here Wednesday.

"Bangladeshi garment manufacturers and traders have approached us to do business in the northeastern states. Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar promised to provide logistical supports, including land, for this purpose," India's Deputy High Commissioner in Dhaka, Sandeep Chakravorty, told reporters.

After meeting Sarkar, the Indian diplomat said: "Sarkar has a good understanding of Bangladesh. He readily agreed to provide land and other logistical support at the Bodjunjnagar industrial estate (in western Tripura) if the Bangladeshi garment traders want to do business in the northeast or set up their manufacturing units."

Chakravorty said that after returning to Dhaka, he will again meet the traders and industrialists involved in the garment industries to convey Sarkar's willingness.

"Tripura would be an ideal place for doing business and setting up industries by the Bangladeshi investors as the northeastern state has surplus power and natural gas," said Chakravorty, now on a four-day visit to the state.

He will visit Sabroom in southern Tripura to see the progress of the proposed bridge over river Feni for accessing the Chittagong international port from India's northeastern states. The sea port is just 75 km from Tripura.

He will also visit Akhaurah, just two km away from Agartala city, to look at the 15-km-long proposed Agartala-Akhaurah rail link, work on which is scheduled to start early next year.

Tripura will be the second power surplus state in India within the next three-four months after Sikkim, once full generation starts from Palatana and Monarchak gas-based power plants.

State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has commissioned its biggest 726 MW capacity commercial power project at Palatana in southern Tripura, 60 km south of Agartala.

The power generation from the first unit (363 MW) of the Rs.9,000-crore Palatana power plant began December 2013 and the second unit (363 MW) is expected to start generation by next month.

The state-owned North East Electric Power Corporation is setting up a 104 MW power project at Monarchak in western Tripura, 70 km south of Agartala, and just eight km from the India-Bangladesh border. The project is likely to start generation within the next three-four months.