Development / Assam

NEW DELHI, April 16 ? In an attempt at cost-cutting, the Bogibeel road-cum-rail bridge project has been converted into a single rail track bridge. According to revised estimates, the Bogibeel bridge is now estimated to cost Rs 1,767 crore. Initially the project was estimated to cost Rs 1,000 crore. The Railways Ministry promptly solved the problem by deciding to convert the bridge into a single-track one. The result was at least 20 to 25 per cent cost reduction. According to estimates, it would cost about Rs 782 crore less. The final location survey of Bogibeel bridge has already been...

GUWAHATI, April 13?The North Eastern Development Finance Corporation Ltd (NEDFi) has chalked out a detailed plan to boost the economy of Meghalaya, and to reach out to the people in the State, the Corporation has set up a branch office at Shillong which started functioning from October 15, 2001, stated a release. Mentionably, NEDFi was set up in 1995 for the development of industries and infrastructure in the North East region. NEDFi has sanctioned Rs 5458 lakhs as assistance to 21 projects in Meghalaya covering industrial/agricultural activities such as food processing, poultry, health care...

ITAKHOLA, April 10 ? On a journey by boat, particularly after the onset of autumn along the Brahmaputra from any part of Assam, one can see numerous small and large chars (river islands) inhabited by religious minority people. Is there any one to think about these people? No, the political leaders use them as vote bank. The chars mostly dotted with huts and cultivation around hardly attracts anyone?s attention. The inhabitants of the chars who consist of 30 per cent of the total population of the State usually remain detached from the mainstream of the state. The people have to leave in most...

GUWAHATI, April 8: Altogether 44,514 tourists including 1,782 foreign tourists visited the Kaziranga National Park in the year 2001-2002, said Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi. Replying to a question by Girindra Kumar Baruah (AGP) in the State Assembly, Gogoi said that the Forest department earned revenue amounting to Rs 31,07,284 from the National Park in the year.

GUWAHATI, April 8 ? Let the elephants live for the sake of humanity. Do not lead it to extinction, or else all of us will face the same fate, said noted elephant expert Parbati Barua while addressing a Guwahati Press Club function as the Guest of the Month at the Press Club premises here this morning. Smt Barua, a recipient of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)?s 1989 ?Global 500-Roll of Honour? award for elephant conservation, and daughter of the legendary expert on Asian elephant the Late Prakritesh Chandra Barua (Lalji), a descendant of the Gauripur Jamindars, regretted that...

ITAKHOLA, April 8? Thousands of tribal people are earning their livelihood by selling of trees in the reserve forests, despite the Supreme Court ban on felling of trees in the North-east. There are more than 21,596 people settled in the forest areas, cultivating paddy, yam, chilli, etc. When this Correspondent visited the Na-duar Reserve Forest Range in Hatipoti, it was noticed that most of the forest lands have been used by the people settled there. Of late, the forest is much in the news due to exchange of gunfire between timber smugglers and Forests Protection Force personnel. And also the...

NAMERI RESERVE FOREST, April 6 ? Unrestricted felling of trees and encroachment have reduced more than half of the forest in Sonitpur district that boasts of a combined territory of 13 forest reserves. According to officials, 9,376 hectares of Chariduar forest and 9,956 hectares of Gohpur reserve forest have been denuded by militants living in the vicinity of these forests.With encroachments, herds of wild elephant frequently migrated to villages in search for food and as a result destroyed standing crops worth crores of rupees, besides killing 190 people in the last decade in East and West...

GUWAHATI, April 5 ? Queen of elephants Parbati Barua is very sad today. For, the once tender - hearted people of her native State Assam have become intolerant towards the wild elephants. They even do not bother today to poison these majestic animals to death. Fourty seven-year-old, Smt Barua, a descendant of the Gauripur Jamindars and daughter of the legendary elephant expert Late Prakritesh Chandra Barua (Lalji), who has spent almost entire of her life with the elephants and known among the wildlife experts all over the world as the only woman elephant catcher in the world, said, while...

GUWAHATI, April 4 ? Finally the long wait for the people of north eastern region was over. Guwahati was today put on the international aviation map with the maiden Air India flight taking off to Thailand capital Bangkok with capacity 200 passengers on board. A few minutes past 3 o?clock this afternoon, the 200-seater Airbus 310 took off from the tarmac of Lokapriya Gopinath Bardoloi International Airport with the blessings of nonagenarian Surabala Bardoloi, wife of the Lokapriya.

An enthusiastic Union Civil Aviation Minister, Syed Shahnawaz Hussain informed that it was for the first time in...

DIPHU, April 1 ? A central study team from the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration, New Delhi, visited Karbi Anglong recently to study the role and function of autonomous district councils in decentralising planning and management of primary education in the district. The team covered all aspects administration and financial and through visits to 25 primary schools and took interviews with Executive Council members, district and State level officers. The team also examined the DPEP intervention. The findings of the team were that the autonomous council and the State...