GUWAHATI: The quintessential Guwahati Tea Auction Centre has stepped into the 50th year of its existence on September 25 and is preparing for celebration of its Golden Jubilee Year.
The GTAC has planned several events throughout the year to celebrate 50 years of its existence. An inaugural function to mark the beginning of the year-long celebrations is being organised by the centre where in the main attraction would be a manual auction with the traditional outcry and hammer system.
The first Guwahati Tea Auction Committee (GTAC) was formed on August 11, 1970, under the leadership of then Assam Chief Minister, Late Bimala Prasad Chaliha. The founder chairman of the committee was Dharmananda Das, IAS while Late Dhanpati Sarma Roy was the Member Secretary.
The notable personalities who took the initiative for formation of the first GTAC committee Significant contributors for the formation of the committee were Late Hemendra Prasad Barooah (Padmashree recipient), Late Mahadev Jalan, Late S K Mehra, Late Narendra Kumar, Late N K Dutta, Late R.G. Baruah who was also the person to knock down the first lot of GTAC on September 25, 1970
The first sale took place on September 25, 1970 at the Nehru Stadium Guest House in Guwahati and was attended by many dignitaries from the government, Tea Industry as well as prominent citizens of the state and many buyers from across the country.
A fledgling GTAC sold 9.1 million kgs of tea in the year 1970 to begin with, but has grown in size and stature over the years to become the largest tea auction centre of India and the second largest CTC auction centre in the world.
With 195 million kgs of tea sold through the centre in 2018, the GTAC hopes to keep growing at this pace.
When the concept of e-Auction was first introduced in 2009, GTAC was the only auction centre who readily implemented the same and successfully started its dust auctions through the e-Auction portal from May 2009.
It is also the first auction centre to allow specialty teas in its catalogue since 2016, which have been creating records throughout.
In June 2019, GTAC opened the GTAC Tea Lounge in its premises to make available the best quality garden fresh teas to the public and also to promote the gardens packing their own teas.