A CORRESPONDENT
DIBRUGARH: The first tea museum of the Northeast region has now become a distant dream for the people of Dibrugarh, with work on the much-anticipated project remaining stalled for the past few years.
Dibrugarh is known as the ‘Tea City’ of India, and the proposed tea museum was envisioned as a major attraction showcasing the history and heritage of tea. However, the ambitious project appears to have lost momentum, with no clear indication of when it will be completed and opened to the public.
The proposal to construct a tea museum in Dibrugarh was approved by the State Tourism Department in 2016, and work on the project began in early 2017. According to officials, Rs 3.14 crore was sanctioned by the North Eastern Council (NEC) and the Assam Government for the first phase of the project.
Spread across 2.66 acres of land, the museum was expected to be opened to the public in the first half of 2023. However, more than three years have passed since the proposed opening, with the project yet to be completed or inaugurated.
Sources alleged that funds meant for the development of the project have been misused.
“The project should have been completed in 2023, but the work has been stalled. The NEC has not released the funds for the second phase. Due to the mismanagement of funds, the whole project has been stalled,” an official source said.
“People have a lot of expectations from the project, but it seems that the project has been lost somewhere. If it has been stalled due to the fault of the contractors, then they should be answerable to the public because it is a public project,” said ATTSA Assistant General Secretary, Central Committee, Lakhindra Kurmi.
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