Tripura was a State ruled by the Maharajas before independence. The Public Works were being carried out through a small Technical unit headed by a state engineer while the post was elevated later in the rank of Principal Engineer. A good number of engineers   from CPWD and CW&PC/ CWC joined in the state on deputation to PWD Tripura who made valuable contribution. 

Some statistics on availability of fund during the Maharajas’ period, a decade before independence (1937-40) is given below:                         

It is mentioned here that Maharaja of Tripura was the king in Tripura. He also functioned as Zeminder of the Chakla- Roshanabad area (Portion of Tipperah district, Noakhali etc of British India) with headquarters at Comilla. Post-Independence, Maharani Kanchanprava Devi signed the Agreement of Merger with the Union of India on September 09, 1949 in her capacity as Regent, Council of Regency.  Tripura merged with the Union of India on October 15, 1949.   

Authentic information is available about the position of communication in the state 140 years ago, from the “Statistical Account of Tipperah” by W.W. Hunter, a very senior ICS officer of British Government, which was published in London in 1876.

“There are no roads worthy of the name in Hill Tipperah, the capital itself is almost cut off from the rest of the world for want of land communication, the route by water being only open in the rains”. He further said “In order to visit the sub divisional headquarters of Kailasahar in the northeast of the state, it is necessary to make a long detour by river through the British districts of Tipperah and Sylhet, the journey taking about fifteen days”.

It would be interesting to look back the position of Public works during 1917-1918, which is given briefly, as appeared in the Administrative Report of Tripura, 1917-1918.

The following works were in hand during the year

The Position of roads in Tripura even in mid- 1940’s was poor. There were roads connecting some of the subdivisions but these were fair weather roads or paths. It was difficult to negotiate during rains. The state had two black topped roads. One was from RMS Chowmuhani to Akhaura and the other was from Palace to Maharajgunj Bazar in 1940’s.  WBM course of Akhaura Road was carried out during 1919-20.

Maharaja Bir Bikram Kishore (1923-1947) had an ambitious plan for development. However, in view of limited resources, it was not possible to implement them in a short time. Maharaja constituted a State Improvement Committee, who formulated a plan involving expenditure of Rs. 52,00,000/- to be executed over a period of 19 years consisting the following components.

Public Works started its journey with only one Division with 5 sub divisions. This was the starting when the Works and Buildings department was formed after merger. Soon the name of the Department was changed to Public Works Department. The Secretarial function of PWD was entrusted to Principal Engineer & Secretary on June 18, 1954 and a new division named Northern Division was opened on August 16, 1954.  

To cope up with increased works, the following divisions were opened on dates shown against each.

Tripura Territorial Council was formed on August 15, 1959. The Council merged with Tripura Administration on July 1, 1963 when three divisions of TTC merged with PWD.

With increased work load, office of Superintending Engineer was opened on October 1, 1959.

To augment irrigation works in the state, Minor Irrigation Division and Investigation Division were opened on November 5, 1959. Similarly Electrical and Mechanical Division was opened on March 18, 1957.

The Public Works Department is having different wings headed by one Chief Engineer. Tripura Housing & Construction Board is a constituted body under PWD, headed by Chief Executive Officer. The hierarchy of PWD right from Minister to Division level is given below: 

# Note: Source of historical information of PWD is taken from Sri N.K. Datta, Former Engineer in Chief, PWD & Secretary.