A belt conveyor type dryer was developed to reduce the moisture content of dehulled tamarind fruit to an optimized level for deseeding and hence reduce the wastage of fruits. The dehulled tamarind fruit was dried under three different temperatures (50, 60, & 70oC) with the combination of three different airflow rates (0.5, 1.0 & 1.5 m/s) and three different feed rates (5, 7.5 & 10 kg/h). The selected variables were optimized using statistical analysis to develop the prototype dryer. The optimized temperature, airflow rate and feed rate were 60oC, 1.5 m/s and 5 kg/h, respectively. The drying models were used for analyzing the drying kinetics of dehulled tamarind fruit under different temperature conditions. The highest coefficient of determination of 0.99 and reduced Chi square of 0.0001 favoring the optimized drying condition was obtained for the Midilli model. The color change of dehulled tamarind fruit during drying were measured by Hunter color meter. The most preferable color was obtained at 60oC drying temperature and the corresponding L*, a* and b* values were 49.5 ± 2.6, 2.9 ± 1.1 and 11.5 ±1.4, respectively.