[Assam] Building a prosperous Assam

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*EDITORIAL*
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*Building a prosperous Assam
— Manoj Kumar Das* *
A* blame game been going on for quite sometime now. People at the State
blame the Centre for the underdevelopment in Assam, while Delhi's view is
that the State doesn't have the capacity to absorb the funds and capability
for translation into development. The time has come to think big and prepare
a basket of Detailed project Reports keeping an overall vision plan in the
perspective to fulfil Assam's destiny as the most prosperous land bridge
between two great economic blocks. The following projects can be taken up
for implementation in the next couple of decades:

An important project will be dredging of the river Brahmaputra and its
tributaries. A look at the satellite maps of the Brahmaputra Valley will
reveal how land is being held by the river and its tributaries. We need not
grudge though, for this soil had been reclaimed by the river system from the
Himalayas during the past 200 million years through erosion. It can now be
freed for developmental purpose. On a rough estimate, some 1.5 million
hectares can be unlocked if we dig, dredge and train the rivers. The
reclaimed soil can be dumped in a North-South direction in mounds to get the
maximum surface area. These 1.5 million hectares of reclaimed land can be
used to rehabilitate the misplaced people from flood prone areas.

The project will necessitate displacement and relocation of the riverine
people. They can be offered job and entrepreneurial opportunities. Canals
will ne available for cheap water transport, irrigation, and running of the
river plants. Water is already a scare resource and Brahmaputra drains out
the largest amount of fresh in India into the Bay Bengal every year. We have
one of the four largest metropolises in the world in the country and this
offers a huge market for fresh water.

We can build a huge water pipeline, similar to the oil pipeline, the intake
of this pipeline can be on the river bed. There is no need to have high dam
for this. Technology is available to pump out water like oil with a series
of pumping stations. Power will come from the running of the river plants or
some other source,. In a few year the North East will be a power surplus
region.

The Brahmnaputra expressways will come in the post river-training stage. The
is to build two paralled expressways from Dhubri to Sadiya along the dredged
river, and also, series of roads along other major rivers and provide a
faster alternative route for transit, trade and commerce linking the Far
East and Bangladesh. The expressways will have dozens of greenfield planned
cities, motels, recreation facilities, fisheries, water sports facilities,
parks and gardens, bio diversity parks, exhibition centers, marts, malls,
haats, craft centres, organic farms cruise ports, jetties, floating
hospitals, maritime training colleges, floating hotels, golf course etc and
will provide empolyment to thousands.

Construction up of an 'aerotropolis' in upper Assam, not far from Dibrugarh,
is another measure. This will be a refueling, resting and recreation stop
for long distance fliers from the Pacific Rim to South Africa and West Asia.
As of now, there is no such place. Stopovers at Bangkok, Singapore, KL are
too near, Mumbai-Delhi is dull and Dubai is too dry and far. The
aerotropolis will have world class recreation hubs, educational hub,
shopping malls, sports facilities and a satellite IT hub to tap the IT
potential of the NE Region.

It's time of talk of a mega city, where about 15 million people could live.
This city have an area of influence of over 1,500 km. In South East Asia,
Jakarta, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and Kunming have their spheres of
prosperity. To the West are Dhaka, Kolkata, Chennai, Mumbai, Bangalore,
Hyderabad, Teheran etc. Guwahati is ideally located to yield such a sphere
of influence, and release the pressure on land by urbanising the region. It
will be an epicentre of consumption, manufacturing, trade and commerce. The
great river is ideally located to support such a mega city. At least three
eight-lane bridges across the river, roads, drainage, water, sewage,
sanitation, power, education, recreation, entertainment and health
facilities need to be created. The city will have to outrow its current
topographical limitations and metamorphose itself into a great city. It an
expand to North Guwahati in the North and Sonapur area in the South and
engulf areas up to Nagarbera in the West and to Chandrapur in the East. The
State must open up age old links by building an all-weather, four-lane
express way through the Stillwell Road from Ledo to Mytkyina in Myanmar to
link up with Route No. 9 of the Trans Highway, which links the ASEAN and
Chinese road network. During our visit to China in 1999 we traveled on the
expressway built by the Chinese on the alignment of the old Burma Road up to
Lashio, inside Myanmar. In my estimate a missing link of only 225 km of road
needs to be built through the Hukong Valley in Myanmar. It will make Assam
the hub of the two great economic powerhouses of the 21st century and remove
the region's economic isolation from the world. It will also unleash the
great economic potential of Myanmar. The problems of insurgency will be
solved only through the engagement of the youth in gainful activities. This
highway will bring in prosperity and tourism from the prosperous ASEAN and
the Pacific Rim.

Assam government has sufficient cash reserves. It can kick start the process
by forming an Assam Infrastructure Development Authority, where it will put
the initial capital of US $1 billion. It is hoped that the Centre will not
back out from providing additional equity if such a grandiose plan is
formulated. This initial equity can be leveraged for bigger funds.

The projects will require billions of dollars and the mantra for
implementation will be PPP. Money is in huge supply if we know the tenets of
mesmerizing the private individual investors. Anil Ambani's recent IPO was
over subscribed at about $ 280 bn. We need to know how to tap it with a
great business plan, Concepts sell more than products these days.

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