Guwahati: The Assam government is looking for a co-promoter to set up a tea park in Jorhat to create world class facilities for processing, warehousing, blending and packaging of tea.

Work on the tea park at Chayygaon in Kamrup district is under way, while the government is looking for a co-promoter for another one in Jorhat.

The Twitter handle of Advantage Assam has asked prospective investors to #rejuvenate their business by investing in Assam tea. "Famed worldwide for the fabulous taste of its tea, Assam is the single largest tea producing region globally and accounts for 50 per cent of the country's total tea production," it said.

Advantage Assam -a global investors' summit - will be held here on February 3 to 4. Sources said the cost of the park project is Rs 123 crore and the pre-feasibility has been prepared and approved. The nodal agency of the project is the Assam Industrial Development Corporation.

North Eastern Tea Association adviser Bidyananda Barkakoty said Jorhat is a ideal place to have an integrated tea park. Five contiguous districts - Golaghat, Jorhat, Sivasagar, Dibrugarh and Tinsukia - produces about 400 million kg of tea. Assam state produces about 670 million kg of tea annually. Jorhat is central to all these five districts as well as tea-growing areas of Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland.

He said these five contiguous districts produce more tea than Sri Lanka, Kenya, the whole of South India and entire West Bengal. "Nowadays a large area is not required for a tea park - multiple-level warehouses can be built," Barkakoty said.

"Value addition of a percentage of tea that we produce in Assam has become a necessity for survival of the industry," he said.

Barkakoty said according to market sources, at present there is no tea packet with national presence which is 100 per cent Assam tea. "Therefore, a tea park at Jorhat may attract investors to launch a tea packet at national level with 100 per cent Assam tea," he added.

Sources said good investment opportunities exists along the different activities of tea value chain in Jorhat. The nearest inland water terminal at Neemati is 17km from the town and a 50MW power generation plant is coming up at Amguri, 38km from the town.

Natural gas will be made available to the site from the existing terminal at Duliajan.