What’s delaying Digboi’s new divisional forest office project?

OUR CORRESPONDENT

DIGBOI: While the Digboi forest division stands as the custodian of the globally significant Dehing Patkai rainforest, its own administrative headquarters tells a different story. More than two years after construction began on a new divisional forest office complex, forest officials continue to function from a crumbling six-decade-old building, with the delayed project already witnessing three successive divisional forest officers without reaching completion.

Conceived as a modern administrative hub for one of Assam’s most important forest divisions, the project was expected to replace the existing office building constructed in 1960 and usher in improved infrastructure and administrative efficiency. Instead, despite substantial progress on the ground, the facility remains unfinished and yet to be commissioned.

Departmental sources said nearly 86 percent of the construction work has been completed. However, issues relating to bill processing and fund disbursement are believed to have slowed progress during the final stages. While officials declined to comment on the matter, sources indicated that procedural bottlenecks may have contributed to the prolonged delay.

The condition of the headquarters assumes greater significance considering the scale and ecological importance of the jurisdiction it administers. Spread across more than 64,000 hectares of reserve and proposed reserved forests, the Digboi forest division forms the administrative backbone of the Dehing Patkai landscape, encompassing the Dehing Patkai National Park and parts of the Dehing Patkai Elephant Reserve.

Popularly known as the ‘Amazon of the East,’ the rainforest ecosystem represents one of the last remaining stretches of lowland tropical rainforest in India and remains critical to the ecological security of the Northeast.

Sources said that the new office complex was envisioned as a long-term solution to the growing operational requirements of the division, providing modern facilities, improved working conditions and enhanced administrative efficiency. However, despite visible construction progress, the project appears to have stalled at the final stretch.

For many, the unfinished building has come to symbolise a project caught between promise and completion — a modern structure nearing readiness while officials continue to work from a headquarters that has long exceeded its intended lifespan. Until the remaining work is completed and the facility commissioned, the reasons behind the prolonged delay are likely to remain a subject of scrutiny within both forest and public circles.

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