HT Bureau
GUWAHATI, April 22: Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday laid the foundation stone of a new Assam House at Dwarka here and said the new premises will serve the patients and students of the state.
Speaking on the occasion, chief minister Sarma said the new Assam House will cater to the needs of patients and students while the other two Assam Houses in the national capital will be used by officials.
Sarma said the construction of the new Assam House at Dwarka will be completed within 18 months while the existing one at Sardar Patel Marg will be demolished and in its place a new one will come up, the construction of which will start in June. The chief minister said that any projects under the PWD (Building and NH) Department will have to be completed within a stipulated time frame of two years.
The chief minister also said the state government has created assets in major metropolitan cities and new Assam Houses will come up in Vellore and Bangalore while the existing one in Kolkata will be demolished and a new one will be constructed in its place, with the Assam House already constructed in Chennai.
He further disclosed that the government has acquired land in Mumbai for a Assam Project showcasing Assam’s cultural heritage such as Kamakhya temple, Batadrava than, Rangghar, namghar while it is searching for a suitable plot of land in the national capital for such a project.
The chief minister further pointed that days of agitation and protests in Assam are passé with the state on a roll with several infrastructure projects like roads, flyovers and bridges either completed or under various stages of construction. He said that the government has decided to construct 24 medical colleges out of which 12 have already been completed.
The foundation laying ceremony function was attended by Union minister Rameswar Teli, minister for GAD, Ranjeet Kumar Das, minister for tourism, Jayanta Malla Baruah, MPs Queen Ojha and Pabitra Margherita, CEM, Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council, Tuliram Ronghang, special principal resident commissioner, Rajeev Chandra Joshi, special commissioner and special secretary, PWD, Building and NH, Raj Chakraborty and principal secretary, GAD, Avinash Joshi.
The new Assam House at Dwarka is set to be built at an estimated cost of Rs 21.66 crore by the Public Works (Building & NH) Department, government of Assam, on a plot area measuring 1,000 square metre and will consist of three basements, ground floor plus four floors. It will have one VVIP suite, 18 guest rooms, 13 dormitory beds, one 2 BHK unit and two one BHK units for resident staff. It will also have facilities like a cafeteria, reception and lounge, kitchen, common toilets, car parking, passenger lifts and car lifts. The project completion date is March 2024.
