Transforming Jorhat: CM’s Vision Plan

 Tanuj Goswami

(tanujuri03@gmail.com)

In a recent meeting organized by a news channel in Jorhat, attended by a galaxy of prominent citizens of Jorhat, Titabor, Teok, and Mariani, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarmah, as the lone guest speaker, outlined his perspectives on a number of issues, but primacy was indeed accorded to a futuristic plan for Jorhat district. The CM’s speech was preceded by a brief talk on the mechanism of the federal fiscal structure of the Centre’s financial allocation to the States. Prior to his speech, Jorhat MLA Hiten Goswami narrated an overview of the development initiatives undertaken in the Jorhat constituency.

It’s worth mentioning that the Jorhat Township was planned by the British more than a hundred years ago with a superstructure of an exceptional kind, in the sense that the town prides itself on being dotted with so many wide roads flanked by a large number of assorted trees on the roadside that we see nowhere else. This testifies to the British essence of town planning.

If nothing else, the beautifully designed and constructed majestic public buildings, roads, bridges, playgrounds, public tanks, conveniently located hospitals, railway lines, concrete pools, club houses, etc., with an excellent lay of the land, make for a wonderful mix of design and aesthetic appeal,  keeping in mind the advantages of location and scope for further expansion of the town, which still stand the test of time.

Meanwhile, a few years ago, Jorhat town began to wear a modern look and hum of activities, as a multitude of works are in different stages of advancement in every nook and cranny. People get to observe the visible developmental work after so many years. A clear picture will emerge by the end of 2030, as many well-meaning projects are already in the pipeline as per the Vision Jorhat 2024–2030.

The CM made no bones about his intense desire to make the place an educational, tourism, cultural, and communication hub. The town’s proximity to Kaziranga National Park under Golaghat district as well as Majuli has tremendous scope to widen the network of growth and development to Sivasagar and Charaideo districts, which possess rich historical backgrounds and heritage resources of Ahom rule.

The proposed Super Specialty Hospital at the present site of Barbheta, Jorhat (near Rowriah Airport), now under the occupation of the Arunachal government, will definitely boost the high-end medical services of national importance to not only the people of the North East but the neighbouring East Asian countries as well.

The seamless travel through the proposed Kaziranga elevated corridor and the underground tunnel beneath the river Brahmaputra will revolutionize the road communication network interconnecting Upper, Lower, and North Assam and dawn a new age in the transportation sector, facilitating efficient and fast communication, positively impacting business prosperity, and strengthening the government coffers as well.

The Jorhat-Majuli Bridge is another milestone that is set to open up new vistas of prosperity in terms of trade, commerce, and business. The ease of communication by road, water, etc. has the wonderful ability to right-size the whole spectrum of our fragile rural economy.

The CM’s open call for public cooperation in relation to the ongoing development process, with a slew of reform initiatives that are inevitable in evolving the economy, is timely. The transition following structural reforms of the Indian economy and the consequent positive effects on the economic fundamentals induced the government to set an ambitious goal of achieving an annual growth rate of 10% in the coming decade, which in fact is achievable if the existing tempo of growth maintains its consistency in all sectors. In the last three quarters, the growth rate of the Indian economy has hovered between 8.2% and 8.3%, so the expectation of a 10% rate of growth in the coming decade is not improbable.

The air services to Jorhat need thorough restructuring, with an increase in the capacity of the existing airport, to cater to the burgeoning needs of the people in the coming days. The prevalent services are woefully inadequate, and the flight schedule should be extended at least to all the major capitals of Eastern India and the North East States.

The pivotal role played by public utilities like the Municipal Board, Corporation, Town Committee, etc. in the planning and management of towns and cities cannot be underrated. These bodies need to be proactive and vibrant in sync with the vision plan and the vitality and needs of evolving towns and cities.

As such, the Jorhat Municipal Board (JMB) should be upgraded to a corporation, and the existing fragilities in their day-to-day functioning should be forthwith identified. The JMB needs immediate overhauling in terms of automation; unfortunately, the board has yet to put in place a basic system for efficient billing and an online payment portal. Technology must be foregrounded for the smooth modern management of upcoming towns. Jorhat is poised to be the engine of growth, and the sheen it lost due to a host of factors has to be revived through the application of modern tools and strategies like artificial intelligence.

For long, Jorhat earned the distinction of being highly cultured, educated, and an education hub that still holds true. With so many institutions of higher learning, assorted cultural organizations, rich legacies, and an enlightened class of vibrant people, Jorhat indeed epitomizes as the right place craving growth and development, and so the desire as expressed by the Chief Minister of Assam to give a new look is well justified as a masterstroke.