Silchar

Silchar (Bengali: শিলচর Shilchôr) is the headquarters of Cachar district in the state of Assam in India. It is 343 kilometres (213 mi) south east of Guwahati. It is the second-largest city of the state in terms of population and municipal area.

It also has the 2nd busiest Airport (76 civilian flights/week) in Assam and 4th busiest in North east after Guwahati, Agartala and Imphal.

After around 68 years of Indian independence, only recently, the railroad connectivity has been upgraded to broad gauge. Suresh Prabhu, the present rail minister, has announced direct rail connectivity to metropolitan cities like New Delhi and Kolkata with regular train services having been commenced as planned.

Being politically stable in the otherwise disturbed Northeast earned it the bon mot of "Island of Peace" from India's then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

Approximately 90% residents of Silchar are Bengalis who speak the Sylheti dialect, the rest being Bihari people, Bishnupuriya, Dimasa Kachari, Manipuri (Meitei), Marwaris and some tribal groups like Nagas. Silchar is situated by the banks of the Barak River in what is popularly known as Barak Valley. Rice is the staple cereal. Fish is also widely consumed. Shuţki (the local name for dried fish), shidal chutney and chunga-r peetha (sticky rice cakes prepared inside bamboo sticks) are some of the local delicacies.

Etymology

During the British rule, ships were docked at the bank of the river Barak. Gradually, a market developed at the bank and became a major place of economic activity. The bank was covered with stones to help dock ships and vessels, and the market was developed at a place that was fully covered with stones. People started to refer to the place as Shiler Chor, meaning "a bank of stones". With the passage of time, Shiler Chor was simplified to Silchar, and ultimately the British officials started to use the name Silchar in their official documents referring to the surrounding area of the market. Thus Silchar became the official name of the place.

History

Cachar district records

In the 1850s, British tea planters re-discovered the game polo in Manipur on the Burmese border with India. The first polo club in the world was formed at Silchar.

http://www.guardspoloclub.com/the-club/the-sport http://www.avictorian.com/polo_gallery.html

The first competitive modern form of polo was played in Silchar, the plaque for this feat still stands behind the District Library, Silchar.

Railway link

The Assam Bengal Railway brought Silchar into the Indian railway map in 1899. The railway line from Lumding to Silchar is hailed as one of the most exciting pristine railway tracks of India. Built by the British during the colonial rule, the meter gauge line stands testimony to the grandiose of what was once a highly popular city in the North-East is now converted to Broad Gauge. But in November 2015 a new railway track broad gauge introduce by replacing meter gauge between silchar to guwahati.

Bhasha Shahid [ভাষা শহীদ]

Silchar saw one of the uprisings in favour of the Bengali language. When the Assam government, under Chief Minister Bimala Prasad Chaliha, passed a circular to make Assamese mandatory, Bengalis of Barak Valley protested. On 19 May 1961, Assam police opened fire on unarmed protesters at Silchar railway station. Eleven martyrs had laid down their lives at Silchar Railway Station for the sake of their mother tongue Bengali.

• Kanailal Niyogi
• Chandicharan Sutradhar
• Hitesh Biswas
• Satyendra Deb
• Kumud Ranjan Das
• Sunil Sarkar
• Tarani Debnath
• Sachindra Chandra Pal
• Birendra Sutradhar
• Sukamal Purakayastha
• Kamala Bhattacharya

After the popular revolt, the Assam government had to withdraw the circular and Bengali was ultimately given official status in the three districts of Barak Valley. Section 5 of Assam Act XVIII, 1961, safeguards the use of Bengali in the Cachar district. It says, “Without prejudice to the provisions contained in Section 3, the Bengali language shall be used for administrative and other official purposes up to and including district level.”

Every year on 19th May is celebrated as Bhasha Shahid Divas (ভাষা শহীদ দিবস) to commemorate those 11 martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the sake of protecting Bengali language, various cultural programmes are conducted, rallies are taken out and bust of those martyrs are decorated with flower garlands.

Industries

• Tea Estate: Silchar is surrounded by approximately, 100 tea estates. The quality of soil and climate around Silchar is conducive for production of high quality Assam Tea, during the British occupation tea plantation was introduced in the area. Popular tea companies based in Silchar are Dewan, Doloo, Koomber and Chandighat. These tea gardens also double up as tourist attractions and scenic spots given the picturesque view. The office of the Surma Valley Branch Indian Tea Association (SVBITA) is located at Silchar.
• ONGC has its base located at Srikona, near Silchar, which is known as Cachar Forward Base with ongoing operations in Tripura, Mizoram and Barak Valley.

• CACHAR PAPER MILL: It's a unit of Hindustan Paper Corporation Limited (A Govt. Of India Enterprises). It is located in Panchgram. The distance is 26 km from Silchar. The mill has the capacity to install 1 lakh MT production.The Industry produces a fine quality paper from bamboo.Many people from Silchar are working in paper mill.
• Assam Industrial Development Corporation Complex at Malinibeel Silchar is a hub for micro small scale units in Silchar. It houses units like manufacturing of Industrial gas, manufacturing of HDPE products, Biscuit factory, lime factory and many more Small scale units are coming up.
• Bisleri Bottling Plant is located near NIT-Silchar.

Geography

Silchar is located in the southern part of Assam. Situated on the banks of the Barak River, it is a trade and processing centre for tea, rice and other agricultural products. There is limited industry, principally papermaking and tea-box manufacturing. The city has an airport and is connecting to Guwahati, Agartala, Imphal, and Aizawl. Silchar is regarded as an important road junction of the North Eastern India and serves as a major point of connection for Tripura, Manipur and Mizoram.

The area of Silchar town is 15.75 km2. It has an average elevation of 25 meters (82 feet).

Satellite Townships

The rapidly expanding population of silchar has made it necessary to expand in all directions and small townships. Already two townships are coming up rapidly

1. Sun-City located at Meherpur
2. Devas located at Tarapur

Healthcare

Silchar has a number of good hospitals and nursing homes, some of them are as follows:

• Silchar Medical College and Hospital
• Silchar Civil Hospital
• Green Heals Nursing Home
• KAY-CEE Nursing Home
• Sudipta Nursing Home
• South City Nursing Home
• Life line Nursing Home
• Nightingale Nursing Home
• Medinova Nursing Home
• Valley View Nursing home
• A 10 storie Multi- Speciality Nursing Home is coming up near the satellite town ship of Sun-City
• Mediland Hospital and Research Centre
• Lions Eye Hospital
• Sundari Mohan Seva Bhavan
• Silchar RED-CROSS
• Sun-Lit Hospital
• Shiv Sundari Nari Shikshashram
• Cachar Cancer Hospital and Research center

Connectivity

Silchar is connected by road, railways and air to the rest of the country.

Railways

Silchar railway station falls under the jurisdiction of the Northeast Frontier Railway zone of the Indian Railways. The railway gauge functioned here is Indian Gauge. The railway station is situated in Tarapur, Silchar.

The Indian Gauge conversion which includes the reconstruction of the railway station has been started from 1 October 2014 onwards as a part of the Lumding - Badarpur - Silchar railway section of the Northeast Frontier Railway zone of the Indian Railways.

Roadways

Regular bus services connect Silchar with Guwahati, Shillong, Aizawl, Agartala and Imphal through NH 37 and NH 53. However, during the rainy seasons, heavy downpour affects the Silchar-Shillong-Guwahati route causing frequent landslides which affects the road transportation. There is an Inter State Bus and an Inter State Truck Terminus which was constructed in the year 2005. The under construction four lane East - West corridor will connect Silchar in the east with Saurashtra in the west.

Airways

Air connectivity Silchar (IXS) is located at Kumbhirgram, about 22 km from Silchar and there are regular flights connecting Silchar with Kolkata, Guwahati & Tezpur. The airport is being modernised and is considered the fourth-busiest in north eastern India after Guwahati, Imphal and Agartala in terms of flight movements. Silchar has been selected as one of the towns for the construction of 51 low cost airports across the country recently.

In December 1985, Air India operated the first all-woman crew flight in the world from Kolkata to Silchar which was commanded by Captain Saudamini Deshmukh on a Fokker F-27 Friendship aircraft.

Silchar(IXS) airport has the following features:

1. ILS (Instrumental Landing system) CAT-I system.
2. 7500 feet runway, capable of handling up to Airbus 321/ Boeing 737-800 type crafts
3. PAPI lights
4. Night Landing Facility
5. Apron can handle three A321/B737-800 crafts or 5 ATR-72 type crafts

Recently Silchar has been connected with Guwahati and Kolkata by SpiceJet Airlines

Tourist attractions

• Khaspur: 20 km from Silchar stands the ruin of a great Dimasa kingdom, capital of historical time and importance. Khaspur was the capital of the Dimasa Kachari Kings and its construction was completed in 1690 AD. The main attractions are the Lion Gate, the Sun Gate and age-old kings temple. The original palace is non-existent, but its subsidiaries, the main entrance gate, the Suryadwar, Debalaya are intact. The entrances are of elephant-patterns.
• Bhuban Temple established by the great Dimasa warrior Veer Shambudhan Phonglo is the most celebrated temple of Lord Shiva in the entire South Assam. The Bhubaneshwar temple is about 50 km from Silchar and is on the top the Bhuvan hill. This is a place of pilgrimage and during the festival of Shivaratri, thousand of Shivayats march towards the hilltop to worship Lord Shiva. This temple by its geography attracts a lot of hikers as there are no motor roads to reach the hilltop. One has to hike at least 17 km from the plains to the temple.
• Iskcon Temple is an important temple dedicated mainly to Lord Krishna. The temple is in Ambikapatty, Silchar. It was built and is being operated by the world famous Sanatan Dharmic spiritual organization ISKCON. There is a vegetarian restaurant operated nearby by the organization ISKCON.
• Kancha Kanti Kali Temple: 11 km from Silchar stands the historical and most celebrated temple of South Assam, i.e., the temple of Mother Goddess "Kachakanti". She is said to be amalgamation of two powerful Hindu deities: mother Durga and mother Kali. The original temple was built in 1806 AD by the Kachari king. Human sacrifices were offered to the Goddess till 1818 AD. The old temple is ruined now and has been replaced by new temple which was built in 1978.
• Gandhibag is in Park Road, at the center of the town. The park is named after Mahatma Gandhi. There is a Shahid Minar in the park dedicated to the language martyrs who sacrificed their lives on 19 May 1962 fighting for the protection of the Bengali language against the Government of Assam.
• Maniharan Tunnel is a popular pilgrim spot about 5 km from Bhubaneswar temple. As per mythology, this tunnel was once used by Lord Krishna. The holy River Tribeni flows beneath this tunnel. Maniharan temple, dedicated to Lord Krishna, is on the premises.