K. Alam – författare

Present Guwahati was the location of many urban settlements in classical and medieval times. Modern Guwahati owes its origin to British occupation of Assam in 1826. But it never became the capital except for forty days in 1874. Guwahati since since 1972 has been the capital of the reorganised State of Assam. Since then, the city became the central place of the North-East India with respect to various public services. It became overtime the gateway to North-East India. There has been an enormous growth of Guwahati since 1971 -72 which is now an agglomaration of urban settlements which brought pluralism in its life. Guwahati, the gateway to North-East India is a political and economic nerve centre. Since 1972 the development process was accelerated and the outside capital flowed in Guwahati. With small and medium seale industries in and around Guwahati and with radical growth of population, the character of Guwahati changed beyond recognition, from a scattered temple town to a modern cosmopolitan city with all the complexities of unplanned Urban growth. Guwahati should play the same role for a rapidly emerging North-East India that Calcutta did for East India one hundred years back. North-East India is emerging and Guwahati should jump in. There is a possibility of dramatic development. For this we need a massive upgrading of infrastructure to enable it to take part in the Global economy. No place is better than Guwahati for development of North-East India in its totality.