Tripura Tea Development Corporation (TTDC) chairperson Santosh Saha on Wednesday told reporters that Tripureswari Tea would be the brand name of the state tea.

In an effort to boost the century-old tea industry in the state, the corporation and Tea Board India have been working on designing a new logo for better trade opportunities and to sell the products of the state.

Saha said steps would be taken to ensure efficient marketing of Tripura tea and revive the industry in the state.

“We have got the Centre’s approval to use the brand name. Many steps would be taken to develop the Tripura tea industry and it is the perfect time to market the products of the state. We have decided to market 100 gram and 50 gram packets of tea produced in the state under the brand name of Tripureshwari Tea. Branding and marketing are very important to sell any product,” Saha said.

The name Tripureshwari refers to goddess Tripura Sundari, the deity of the state’s former rulers, the Manikya kings.

The deity is worshipped at Tripura Sundari Temple in Udaipur of Gomati district, which is considered one of the 51 Hindu Shaktipeeths of the country.

The corporation had begun working on setting up an auction centre here, he said.

“If we open the auction centre here, it will reduce the dependence on auction centres of Guwahati and Calcutta. So , we will set up an auction centre here to sell our tea. We also propose to sell our tea at the Srimangal auction in Bangladesh. It will cut down on the cost to send tea to different states and also give us a potential market. The proposal is now being considered by the governments of India and Bangladesh,” he added.

The tea industry took off in the state over a 100 years ago, in 1916, at Hiracherra tea estate in the present Unakoti district.

Huge amounts of tea were often reported to be smuggled into Bangladesh and sold under other brands.

Earlier on Tuesday, chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb told reporters that a new tea tower would be set up here to sell or research tea in the state.

Tripura has 58 operational tea estates, among which 42 are individually owned, 13 are operated under cooperative societies and three are run by the corporation.

Nearly 3,000 small tea growers also run their small tea estates with government support.