The Assam government on Friday inked a deal with the National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC) for setting up a 65-storey twin tower trade centre in earthquake-prone Guwahati.
The agreement for building the trade centre on a 32-bigha plot was made ahead of the two-day Global Investors’ Summit — dubbed Advantage Assam — that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to inaugurate on Saturday.
A bigha equals 14,400 square feet in Assam.
“This building is not just an impressive structure but it embodies the spirit of progress, aspirations of the youth and a world class design,” Union Minister of State (independent charge) for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri said.
Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said the twin tower with in-house arrangement would boost business in the State, which aspired to be a hub of trade between India and the bloc of Southeast Asian nations in pursuance of Delhi’s Act East Policy.
NBCC officials said work on the building would begin in July using green technology as well as reflecting the rich natural heritage and culture of Assam.
“The project has a completion period of 60 months,” NBCC’s Chairman and Managing Director Anup Kumar Mittal said.
The 65-storey project has been receiving mixed reactions since Assam falls in Zone 5, a high-risk earthquake category.
The tallest existing structure in Guwahati has G+15 floors though the Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) had in 2013 granted environmental clearance to a 20-storey apartment complex.
Of late, though, the GMDA has not been permitting construction of buildings taller than G+5 floors. “But this has more to do with road width and available open space around built-up area than earthquakes,” a senior GMDA officer said, declining to be named.
Former Congress Minister Pradyut Bordoloi, who handled trade and commerce, chose not to criticise the project. “There is technology to build skyscrapers in tremor zones but the trade centre will serve no purpose if it is not set up as a special purpose vehicle catering to the northeast and neighbouring countries,” he said.
But Mr. Bordoloi panned the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government for organising the Global Investors’ Summit by taking credit for growth achieved during 15 years of Congress rule that ended in 2016.
“This government claims to have attracted investments of ₹700 million that were from major FMCG and cement companies that started production in Assam from 2007. Even the State’s GDP growth rate of 13% being advertised for the Global Investors’ Summit is inflated. The GDP is growing at 4% only,” he said.
The city’s commissioner of police Hiren Nath, meanwhile, said his force would provide “invisible security” to the Advantage Assam event. “The security personnel will be in plainclothes, not khaki,” he said.
