GUWAHATI, May 9 � The Guwahati Tea Auction Centre (GTAC), jointly with the tea producers� associations � the North Eastern Tea Association (NETA), the Assam Tea Planters� Association (ATPA) and the Bharatiya Cha Parishad (BCP), has embarked upon an ambitious venture to promote Assam tea by setting up an Assam Chai Bar.
The Chai Bar, also to be called The Tea Room, is expected to be completed within the next 75 days. It is expected to be opened for the common people by the first week of August next, said GTAC chairman and Principal Secretary of the State�s Industry and Commerce Department Ravi Capoor addressing a press conference here this morning.
The Chai Bar would be an exclusive retail counter of authentic Assam tea and a lounge for consumption of brewed tea. The menu for different varieties of tea would be prepared by a team of sellers, buyers and tasters, along with a food and beverages expert.
The Chai Bar would also have audio-visual facilities to display the full process of tea manufacturing right from tea leaf plucking to tea packaging and books related to tea would also be displayed here and made available for purchase, he said.
It will be located on the ground floor of the GTAC building, just near the State�s capital complex, on the busy Guwahati-Shillong Road of the city. This will be the first of its kind in the entire NE region.
The tea associations named above would be looking after the running of the venture as they have the required expertise in the business. These associations are putting their money to set up the lounge and it can be said for sure that this Chai Bar would emerge in the coming days as the landmark of the city of Guwahati and an iconic place for the tourists visiting North East India, Capoor said emphatically.
It is the joint responsibility of all sections of people of the State to see that the tea industry of the State gets a great boost, he said.
If this initiative succeeds, then there would be efforts to set up similar Chai Bars in other places of the State, Capoor informed.
On marketing the Chai Bar, he said that all tourism literatures of the State as well as the Central governments would include information on it for the knowledge of the tourists and it would also be sought to be made a part of the Incredible India campaign of the Indian Tourism department.
It is expected that the Assam Chai Bar would be able to do a very good business within the next six months, he said. He, however, admitted that a survey has not been done while conceiving the Chai Bar.
Abhijit Sarma of the ATPA said that rich varieties of Assam tea would be made available at the Assam Chai Bar at reasonable prices. It would be presenting the second flush, autumnal and rainy season teas, he said.
NETA chairman Bidyananda Barkakoty said that the tea tasters, buyers and sellers would be included in the team for selection of the teas proposed to be retailed at the Chai Bar. The production of the State is versatile and it produces a variety of grades of tea. Its second flush tea is the best of all tea it produces in a year.
The Chai Bar would be able to present even the organic tea produced by the Singphos and it would also be the effort of the organizers of the Chai Bar to present the best of the orthodox teas, green teas and CTC teas produced in the State. The storage system at the Chai Bar would be able to present the garden fresh teas to the retail buyers, etc.
Efforts would also be there to popularize tea among the younger generations of the State�s people and to add value to tea, Barkakoty said.
Lauding the venture as the right one to boost the tea industry of the State, Barkakoty said that the State produces around 13 per cent of tea produced in the world and it produces around 51 per cent of the total tea produced in India.
Secretary of the Guwahati Tea Auction Buyers� Association Dinesh Bihani also spoke on the occasion. GTAC secretary Jayanta Kakati and its other stakeholders were also present on the occasion.
