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| Utility craft |
Nov. 4: The Assam Bamboo Development Agency has co-me up with a plan to promote and diversify bamboo and its products in the city in the form of a bamboo museum.
The 3,000 square feet museum, which will display different kinds of bamboo products, will be built at Lankeshwar and will depict the life of the people whose lives revolve around the grass and its products.
National Bamboo Mission state mission director R.P. Agarwalla said, “The museum will provide a glimpse into the lives of the people who rely on the grass and will aid in expanding people’s knowledge about bamboo.”
He said the museum would set up on the lines of the handicraft museum of the North Eastern Handicrafts and Handlooms Department Corporation Limited and after Nagaon, Guwahati’s would be the second such museum to be set up by the Assam Bamboo Development Agency.
Along with the museum, the campus will accommodate a bamboo handicraft production centre and bamboo retail outlet. While the production centre will produce mechanised bamboo handicrafts and furniture using skilled artisans, the retail outlet will sell the products created at the centre.
“Raw materials will be procured directly from the forest as well as the market, depending on the kind of bamboo required,” Agarwalla said.
Besides promoting use of the bamboo in daily life and providing a wider platform to artisans, he said the museum would also act as a knowledge hub for those who were interested in knowing about the people who were dependent on bamboo to earn a livelihood.
“The complex, accommodating a production centre, a retail outlet and a museum, will give a complete idea to the visitors about how bamboo is used at the production stage and subsequently promoted in the market,” he said.
The Assam Bamboo Development Agency is also organising a 10-day training workshop at Srimanta Sankaradeva Kalakshetra this month to train the artisans on producing bamboo artefacts. “Resource persons from North Eastern Handicrafts and Handloom Development Corporation (NEHHDC) will supervise the programme,” Agarwalla said.
Apart from developing the bamboo sector in Guwahati, the state BDA has also undertaken projects in other parts of the state. While production centres are being set up at Nagaon and Dhekiajuli, retail outlets will be opened at Tinsukia and Karimganj. Nagaon and Tezpur already have retail outlets.
“If everything works according to plan, we expect the project to be complete by March next year,” Agarwalla said.
The Assam Bamboo Development Agency is taking these initiatives under a project sanctioned in October this year under the centrally sponsored programme of National Bamboo Mission. Each production centre will cost the agency around Rs 25 lakh, a retail outlet will entail a cost of Rs 9 lakh, while Rs 35 lakh is the estimated cost of constructing the bamboo museum.