Famous worldwide for its unique "Assam Tea", the state of Assam is known to have the largest concentration of tea plantations globally. The state accounts for nearly 55 percent of the India"s total tea production and about 80 percent of the country"s export.
Situated close to the prime location of the Dispur Capital Complex in Guwahati is the Guwahati Tea Auction Centre, which is one of the busiest tea trading facilities in the world and is popular for its "Assam Tea". The auctioning centre has an adequate space of about 20,000 sq. ft. The Guwahati Tea Auction Centre has witnessed the largest volume of "crush, tear and curl" (CTC) tea auction worldwide.
History of Guwahati Tea Auction Centre
It is said that once the tea plantations in Assam occupied a large part of the land but lacked the worthy contribution to the state"s economy. In order to change that, efforts were made from 1960s onwards to establish a proper tea auction centre in Guwahati. And finally the Guwahati Tea Auction Centre was established, which had its own committee and their first meeting was held in Shillong on August, 1970.
The centre had its first inaugural sale on 25th September, 1970, and after the first initial sale, demand increased and the Guwahati Tea Auction Centre started to gain popularity. Their first sale was an immediate hit with the new registered buyers outnumbering the real auction centre buyers. The first lot of tea was auctioned at a price of Rs.42.50 per kg, which was a great achievement.
Design of Guwahati Tea Auction Centre
Sprawling over a space of 20,000 sq. ft of auctioning space, the Guwahati Tea Auction Centre also has about 12,00,000 sq ft of permanent tea warehousing space dedicated to storage of auction teas with associated road transportation carriers represented by major transport companies. The centre has two primary auction halls, a 460 seat Leaf Auction Hall and a 110 seat Dust Auction Hall, both of which are fully air conditioned.
The main purpose of the Guwahati Tea Auction Centre is to ensure a smooth functioning between the sellers, warehouse keepers, brokers and buyers without the violation of rules.
Visiting Information on Guwahati Tea Auction Centre
The Guwahati railway station is the closest at a distance of almost 6 km from the auction centre and the Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport is the nearest at about 35 km away from the Guwahati Tea Auction Centre.
