Introduction: Tuberculosis (TB) remains a leading cause of death among infectious diseases worldwide. The advent of the CBNAAT was a revolution in the diagnosis of tuberculosis, especially with high incidence and resource poor regions. It can be used close to the point of care by operators with minimal technical expertise, enabling diagnosis of TB and rifampicin Resistance (RIF) concurrently using unprocessed clinical specimens, in less than 2h. Aim: To evaluate the diagnostic performances of Ziehl-Neelsen & CBNAAT techniques in detection of Pulmonary Tuberculosis. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the 2414 sputum samples of suspected pulmonary TB. Sputum samples were subjected for ZN staining and CBNAAT.RIF resistance was detected by CBNAAT. Results: Out of 2414 samples, 751 sputum samples were positive by smear microscopy. 1127 Samples were confirmed positive by CBNAAT examination. Majority of cases, 43.57% were in 21-40 yrs age group.24.40% were females and 75.59% were males. Sensitivity of CBNAAT was 100% for sputum positive cases and sensitivity was 22.6% for sputum negative cases. Overall RIF resistance was detected in 49 (4.4%) cases in present study. Conclusion: CBNAAT provide sensitive detection of tuberculosis and rifampicin resistance directly from untreated sputum in less than 2 hours with minimal hands-on time. Keywords: Cartridge-based nucleic acid amplification tests (CBNAAT), Rifampicin(RIF)