Er. Gautam Dutta Choudhury

Silchar Local Centre of The Institution of Engineers (India) started its journey through formation of an Adhoc Committee under the Chairmanship of Er. H V Sundaram, Principal of Silchar Polytechnic on 13 -11-1988 at Silchar Polytechnic. Shri S P Das Purkayastha, Lecturer of Mechanical Engineering Department of Silchar Polytechnic was the Honorary Secretary of that Adhoc Committee. Sri S P Das Purkayastha took active lead to obtain approval for a full-fledged Local Centre. Eminent Engineers of different departments paid their sincere efforts to increase the membership strength from 67 to 136 in a short span of time as at least 100 Corporate Members residing or practicing with the geographical boundary of proposed Local Centre needed for the establishment of a Local Centre as per bye-law.

After several correspondences with Head Quarter at Kolkata , the Guwahati State Centre vide their letter dtd. 18-12-1989 communicated their recommendations to the Honorary Secretary, Adhoc Committee for opening of a Local Centre. The corporate members of the Institution within the geographical boundaries of proposed SLC met in a general meeting held on 07th January’1990 at Silchar polytechnic and composed the following seven members committee for the session 1989-90,1990-1991 under provision of Regulation 29(a) Chairman: Dr. M.C Borgohain FIE Honorary Secretary: Sri S. P. Das Purkayastha Members: Sri A.K. Sen FIE Dr. N.C. Ganguli FIE Sri A.T Chakraborty MIE Sri J.K. Datta Gupta MIE Sri D.N Sharma, MIE Accordingly 28th January 1990 Silchar Local Centre came into Light through a grandiose celebration took place on Cachar Club at 4.00 pm, a 1st Inaugural Function of Silchar Local Centre where Dr. Amitava Bhattacharjee, Past President of The Institution of Engineers (India) acted as Chief Guest, Sri J.N Sharma IAS Deputy Commissioner of the District, Cachar, Silchar and Er. R.N Choudhury, Chairman, Assam State Centre acted as Guest of Honour. More than 200 delegates including corporate members, non members, engineers & other distinguished guest attended the function. Sri S.P. Das Purkayastha reported and informed the members about the decision of the council for opening a Local Centre. At 4-30PM, SLC of IE(India) was inaugurated by Dr.Amitava Bhattecharjee FIE, Chief guest graced the occasion. In his impressive lecture, Dr.Amitava Bhattecharjee stressed upon the role of Engineers on Rural Development & transfers the technology amongst the village people. The function of the office of the Silchar Local Centre was working as usually in the Silchar Polytechnic campus temporarily. In the meanwhile, the members of Silchar Local Centre were in search for a suitable land in the heart of Silchar Town. Finally, a land measuring 14 kathas 8 chattaks (Patta) under Mouza Silchar Town was purchased from the Govt. of Assam. The land was received by the past Hon. Secretary,Sri S.P.Das Purkayastha on behalf of IE(I) from the district authority ( Asstt. Settlement Officer) on the day of 11th March’1990. After acquiring the above plot of land, a Rural Development Centre was established.

The foundation stone was laid by the Hon’ble MLA Late Shri Bimalangshu Roy on 11th December 1999 and to start with the construction work for the said Development Centre Hon’ble MLA had sanctioned Rs. 50,000.00 from his Area Development Fund.Moreover, all the members generously contributed in cash or in kind for the construction purpose. The rural centre was inaugurated by C.R Dutta, Chairman, Rural Development Forum of the Institution of engineers (India) In this way, a Rural Development Centre came into existence. This is pertinent to mention here that this was the first Rural Development Centre among all the local centers of the IE(I). You would be pleased to know that a new Building (G+2) for the Silchar Local Centre is under construction and only 1st Phase building has just completed where one Meeting Hall, Honorary Secretary’s room toilet etc. have been completed. I would like to mention here that this has become possible because of the generous contributions of our esteemed corporate members and by the Land & Building grants sanctioned by the IE Head Quarter, Kolkata. I extend my sincere thanks to them. Now, the 2nd Phase of construction has been started & 450 sq.ft which include Chairman’s Room with toilet has been completed and staircase with lift provision will be started soon. Also, site development of SLC with earth filling is in progress. Now the membership strength of this Centre is 331 as on 04th March 2021 and several efforts are being made to increase the membership strength. In fine, I pay my sincere thanks to the building construction sub-committee for their tireless efforts and to all the members who have directly or indirectly helped for the development of this Centre else we could not reach to this stage today. I also pay my tribute to those who rendered their services directly or indirectly for the relentless journey of this local centre.