Assam town rides BJP’s development showcase

JAGIROAD (ASSAM)

Jursing Bordoloi undertook a mission in March 2024 to dissuade people in and around Jagiroad, a town 55 km east of Guwahati, from selling off their lands and houses. It was a few days after the Centre approved a ₹27,000-crore semiconductor plant to be set up by the Tata Group.

Jagiroad, in Morigaon district, was developed as an industrial centre in the 1960s with a spun-silk mill, followed by a cooperative jute mill, a polyester spinning mill, and a cooperative sugar mill. These were not as huge as the paper mill–Hindustan Paper Corporation–established in 1985.

These mills, however, folded up one by one, depriving the town of a large captive market of employees and their families. The local economy suffered the most after the paper mill shut down in 2017.

“Depression set in, and people began selling off their lands, houses, and shops. It was tough motivating them to hold on, particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic dealt a blow to the already dying town,” Mr. Bordoloi, an advisor to the titular Tiwa king, told The Hindu. The Tiwas are the dominant tribe in Morigaon district.

He said the townspeople saw a ray of hope when the State government, in January 2023, announced it had begun the process to develop 1,000 acres of land in Jagiroad, including 500 acres of the dead paper mill, into a world-class integrated business city with help from Singapore.

“Still, we advised people to hold on and not give up. Scepticism greeted the semiconductor project, but people believed things were changing for the better when work started on the chip-making plant,” Mr. Bordoloi said, adding that from 2024-end, workers and engineers on the project have been providing a steady rent income for house owners.

“Things are looking up, but I am not sure if we will get tenants after the project is completed and employees of the semiconductor plant move into a township,” Lakhan Bordoloi, who owns a house behind a landmark eatery, said.

Litton Saha, a grocery store owner, said business has picked up, but not to encouraging levels. “The scenario may be better after the plant starts functioning by this year-end, as we hear, but we don’t think it will generate enough direct or indirect jobs as the labour-intensive paper mill did. In that case, our customer base may not increase much,” he said.

Job opportunities

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has showcased the semiconductor plant as its future-ready development model, insists it will be a game-changer for Jagiroad and Assam’s economy. “This project is poised to generate employment for more than 26,000 youth, with plans under way to launch the Assam Electronics Mission,” Information Minister Pijush Hazarika, seeking to retain the Jagiroad Assembly constituency for the third straight term, said.

His only rival, Bubul Das of Congress, is also upbeat about the plant. Still, some of his party colleagues doubt if the specialised, technology-driven project would offer enough jobs for locals.

Tata Group officials said locals would constitute a sizeable chunk of the workforce. They said recruitment of trainees for the plant began before it was initiated, and 268 of some 600 students selected in 2024 were from Morigaon.

“The chosen ones are undergoing training in Bengaluru,” Bhaben Neog, the principal of Jagiroad College, said.

The optimism surrounding the semiconductor plant is reflected in areas beyond Jagiroad. At Sitajakhala, about 13 km east of the town, one of Assam’s most successful community-driven dairy development societies, the discussions are often about the need to increase production to cater to the “chipmakers’ market”. 

“The government says some 17,000 people will come to stay in the township being built for the semiconductor plant, but even 15,000 is a good number,” Ranjib Sharma, the chairman of the 68-year-old Sitajakhala Dairy Producers’ Cooperative Society Limited, said.

Published – April 04, 2026 11:17 pm IST