INDIAN STATE : ASSAM

Economic Infrastructure

Roadways

Assam has total road length of approximately 69,000 kms. covering both metalled and non-metalled surfaces that accounts for approximately 60 per cent of the total road length in the North-east. National highways connect the major towns in the state. The length of National Highways is 2044 kms while state highway occupy 2028 kms and the other PWD roads occupy 29271 KMs. The East West Corridor spans over 713 Kms in Assam. During the next five years, the government will strive for the development of roads specifically in the industrial areas.

Railways

The total route length is approximately 2435.13 kms. Several services directly connect regions in Assam to New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Cochin, Tiruvananthapuram, Chennai and Kolkata. Within the state, all the major towns like Dibrugarh, Tinsukia, Jorhat, Nagaon, Guwahati, Tezpur, Barpeta, Bongaigaon, etc. are linked by railways. A number of key meter-gauge railway lines are up-graded to broad gauge. The headquarters of the North-East Frontier Railways is located at Maligaon on the outskirts of Guwahati.

Aviation

Assam is well connected with the rest of India by air. Both private and government owned airlines operate in this sector. There are also regular intra-state air services connecting the six civil airports (Guwahati, Tezpur, Jorhat, Dibrugarh, Silchar and North Lakhimpur) of the state. Some of the tea gardens have their own airstrips and aircraft. International flights from Guwahati to Bangkok have been started to boost trade and tourism in the northeast.

Inland Water Transport

Two Government owned organizations (Central Inland Waterways Corporation and Directorate of Inland Waterways, Assam) are operating water transport services on the river Brahmaputra and Barak on commercial basis. These services are used for the transportation of passengers and goods alike. Waterways are the only mode of transport to many places in the hinterlands.

Currently, the Directorate of Inland Water Transport operates 50 ferry services on Brahmaputra and 24 on river Barak. These services cater to the transportation of passengers and goods across the state as also to the neighbouring states. The types of cargo handled mainly are jute, coal, fertilizers, forest, agricultural products, cement, machinery, etc. the present cargo handling capacity of the fleet is nearly 10,000 metric tones.

In order to cater to the growing need for goods and passenger movement, more such ferry services are on the anvil and one of them will travel as far as Bangladesh. Furthermore, the need to augment the fleet has seen the emergence of a number of shipyards, which are currently engaged in the fabrication and maintenance of the ferry vessels.

Telecommunications

The present telecommunication network in the state is growing fast. Currently, individuals and industry alike face no problem in procuring telephone and other telecommunication facilities. Assam has 269 telephone exchange with approximately 1,20,000 working connections. The growth rate approximately matches the demand and the shortfall, if any, is marginal. Mobile telephone services are available in the city of Guwahati.

Housing

Self-sufficient industrial townships exist at Bokajan, Bongaigaon, Digboi, Duliajan, Jagiroad, Namrup, Narengi, Noonmati, Panchgram and Sivasagar. These townships have all modern amenities like housing, schools, hospitals and recreation facilities. Similar townships are being set up at Numaligarh. The houses are relatively modern and equipped with the basic amenities necessary for modern living. Real estate prices are low compared to other states in the country. Assam offers a good quality of life at affordable prices.

Banking and Finance

Almost all the nationalized commercial banks, all India financial institutions and insurance companies have their regional/ zonal offices at Guwahati. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and NABARD have their regional offices at Guwahati. Besides, multinational banks like Standard Charted and premier foreign trade banks like EXIM bank are also operating in India.

Power

Assam has a huge potential for development of infrastructure for generation, transmission and distribution of electricity. The Govt. of Assam has embarked on an ambitious programme of reform and restructuring of the State Power Sector. Assam is blessed with abundant reserves of natural gas and potential generation of cheap and eco-friendly power from small hydro-electric stations. Assam can boast of being one of the pioneers in utilisation of natural gas for power generation. Its gas-based station at Namrup has a record of over 30/35 years of silent and efficient generation. Consumption of power in the state is set to increase with the development and opening up of the economy and progressive expansion of the electricity supply network. In addition to plants for expansion and modernisation of its electricity supply infrastructure, the Govt. of Assam has ushered in significant structural changes through establishment of the Regulatory Commission and restructuring of Assam State Electricity Board. The proximity of Assam to the neighbouring countries like Bangladesh, Myanmar etc. has a good prospect for multilateral power exchanges. The total installed capacity of electricity generation plants in the state is 574.4 MWs, while the total generation of electricity is 840.4 MU. The per capita consumption of electricity is 120KWH. The policy of open drawal is adopted in the state and units can draw direct power from National Grid.

Social Infrastructure

Education

Assam has numerous educational institutions with standards of education and training as good as in any other part of the country. A substantial portion of the population in the15 to 25 age group in the major towns are also computer literate.

The state has a literacy rate of 52.89%. The female literacy in this region of 43.03% is higher then the national average of 39.19%. Assam has four universities and one agricultural university. It also has 3 medical colleges and one for aquaculture. The total enrolment figure is approximately 4,00,000 students. With regard to technical education, the state has 4 engineering colleges including an IIT (Indian Institute of Technology), 23 vocational training institutes (ITI), 8 polytechnics and 1 junior technical school. These institutes offer specialization options in various disciplines. The state also has a Regional Research Laboratory (RRL) and a Tea Research Institute (TRI) both of which are situated at Jorhat and are of international standards. There are numerous national, regional and state level organisations promoting entrepreneurship development programmes to create a requisite base to take on downstream projects.