The gdp there is too small to matter in those state driven consumption based economies.The gdp here is easily fudged,like taiwan looks like Vietnam in reality compared to Chinese cities but has per capita gdp many times of china . Tripura is one of the most populated state in NE with population with open trade borders,,GDP don't give true picture of a state which has blocked railways construction in consternation of immigrants .
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At ground lvl things aren't the same; Tripura operates on zomato,big bazar,uber,kfc and everything foreign .
Manipur operates on indigenous Foodwifi,leima,lamjengba cab, dwellers ; sure there foreign investment but those investment are also at different class than rest ,like investment from Korean, Japanese,thai brands,the region is deeply rooted to far east while Tripura like like BD border town.
These two are class apart Manipur has an all encompassing manufacturing base that sources everything locally except for electronics and gadgets,it's like a mini country compared to Tripura.
Also in the past,I mentioned how geography matters,Manipur is 93% hills and and only 7% is plain and aerable.All the commercial activities happens here.Imphal valley is surrounded 7 mountains from all side.
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100 % of meiteis(only 47% of population) reside there ,the rest of 93% are hills and inhibited by other indigenous tribes.
This creates an unique issue ,and fudges the stats ,no transparency of hill states controlled by Naga Union with their own agenda,and also in border areas teeming with immigrants from bd,assam,Myanmar,nagaland etc.
Manipur does have superior infrastructure, than Tripura ,much deeper network of roads ,water and gas pipeline,but due to its elevated location and geography it's never enough,it needs massive central aid,and hampers trade with the population in hilly areas.
Shillong is a huge tourist magnet,Shilling in 2007 was what Agartala tries to emulate in 2020.I advice you to go there
Here's just a single lane of road in imphal,there's a flyover and on the other side there's the opposite lane,the roads are also paved with different materials(rocks slabs) in many parts compared to plain concrete mix seen in tripiura.
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Now compare it to the road at the centre of agartala city road.
Though Tripura improved greatly in past decade but fall short of the network of roads,gas pipeline,internet connectivity,water pipeline( most people buy or drink tap water in tripura).
Outside Agartala everything looks too dingy,backward unsafe,
Look at the clip shot at outskrits of Imphal below? I can't imagine a public cafe like this in outskrits of Agartala with the "quality" of immigrant civilians it has and how unruly it can get there.
I visited not too long ago,though I recommend the development in past 5 years,but Tripura is now what shillong was like 10 years ago.
I was just trying to enlighten the ignoramus BD guy through some pointers,
There was not a single cafe some years ago now,that's tragical for young folks of a capital city, there are like 2 "cafe-like" cafe in Agartala now,and I've been there.
^This was the better one and it's actually operated by mainland investor ,not even local. The rest hardly qualify.
Now compare to the dozens of unique and indigenous ones like this in Imphal -->
Your Kolkata bazzar already closed,Tripura had one decently sized shopping centre l,the vishal of Imphal is massive compared to the one in Agartala,many of which are like double room size with low option for choice ,also Tripura got those not too long ago,Imphal had that all almost a decade ago,now people are focused on more artistic quaint small indigenous stops. In Imphal there's also many family mart near many major locality,like any where in East meanwhile you have to go to bazzar or local street shop to manually demand and buy stuff in person in tripura ,very inconvenient during covid.
I was just just trying to enlighten the ignoramus bd guy,the royal palace is the only thing I find aesthetic in the city.