Assam, the largest tea producing state in the country, is contemplating to set up a tea park in Guwahati to boost value addition to tea produced in the state. The move comes close on the heels of reports that neighbouring West Bengal was planning to set up a tea park in Jalpaiguri.
Assam's industry minister, Pradyut Bordoloi, yesterday held a meeting with representatives of the tea industry in the presence of Roshni Sen, deputy chairperson of Tea Board, on setting up of the park. Tea industry sources, present at the meeting, said that the minister has set the ball rolling by initiating talks on setting up of the park which would probably come up near the Inland Container Depot (ICD) at Amingaon in north Guwahati. "Though the matter is in its initial stage, we are happy that the state government has lent voice to our demand and has initiated the process of setting up of a tea park," said Dipanjol Deka, secretary of Tea Association of India (TAI). According to sources, as per initial plan, the park would come up through public private partnership (PPP) mode and would span across 500 to 600 bighas of land.
When completed, the park would be handed over to the tea industry and its stakeholders to invest in it. The minister, sources said, has assured to locate land for the park at Amingaon.
The tea park will house a multi-storey warehouse, tea packers, blenders, exporters under one roof. It would have a dedicated and state-of-the-art infrastructure and other facilities required for value addition of tea. As ICD would be located nearby, shipping of finished products would be a hassle-free task.