File image of DoNER minister Jitendra SIngh

Assam is going to have first-ever Bamboo Industrial Park in the Northeast.

This industrial park will be set up in Manderdisa in Assam’s Dima Hasao district.

Earlier in a tweet, union DoNER minister Jitendra Singh announced that this project will be built on an area of 75 hectares at a total cost of Rs 50 crores.

The in-principle approval will be granted to this project in August this year.

The project is set to be completed by March 2021.

Also read: Bamboo is vital to India’s post-coronavirus economy: Jitendra Singh

Further, the central government also plans to set up another project for Bamboo Park in Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh which would be taken up by the North Eastern Council (NEC).

Earlier on Friday, DoNER minister Jitendra Singh on Friday said bamboo will pay a key role in fulfilling goals of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s clarion call of ‘Vocal for Local’.

Addressing a webinar with various clusters of Cane and Bamboo Technology Centre (CBTC), stake-holders and people associated with bamboo trade, Singh said bamboo will propel the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’ in the north-eastern region and is going to be an important vehicle of trade for India.

“Bamboo is not only vital to northeast India’s post-COVID-19 economy but it will also herald a new momentum for Prime Minister Narendra Modi”s clarion call of ‘Vocal for Local’,” he said.

Singh gave the mantra of ‘Create, Curate and Coordinate’ for the bamboo sector for its full exploitation, branding, packaging and marketing in India and abroad.

Underlining the unexpected potentials of this sector and being neglected for the last 70 years, the DoNER minister said that the present government has the capacity and the will to unlock its potential to the highest level as 40 percent of all bamboo resources lie in north-eastern region in the country.

He said despite India being the second largest producer of bamboo and cane in the world, its share in global trade is only five per cent.

The minister said the sensitivity with which the Modi government views the importance of the promotion of bamboo is evident from the fact that it amended the century-old Forest Act by taking home-grown bamboo out of the purview of the Forest Act, in order to enhance livelihood opportunities through it.

During the webinar, sports minister KirenRijiju said that the DoNER Ministry has done well to promote the bamboo sector and now the onus lies on all the eight northeastern states to make it a vehicle of prosperity for the whole region.

In his address, union minister of state for food processing industries Rameshwar Teli said apart from the huge employment opportunities, the bamboo sector can be a main pillar of ecological, medicinal, paper and building sectors in India.

He said that through right policy interventions, India could capture substantial chunk of Asian market in bamboo trade.