DIBRUGARH, Aug 14: A new public tea auction platform, Assam Chai Bazaar, was launched on Thursday with the opening of its website, www.assamchaibazaar.com, at a function held at the Gymkhana Club here. The website, aimed at facilitating tea producers and reducing transaction costs, was officially launched in the presence of Prashanta Borah, factory advisory officer, Tea Board of India. The Tea Board of India recently granted a licence to Assam Chai Bazaar LLP to operate the public tea auction platform in Upper Assam. Chand Kumar Gohain, one of the partners of the venture and president of the Assam Bought Leaf Tea Manufacturers’ Association (ABLTMA), is among the promoters. The other partners are Deven Singh, Gautam Beria, Chandrajit Baruah, and Sumit Agarwalla, all leading bought-leaf tea manufacturers. According to the promoters, the initiative is aimed at streamlining the tea auction process and enabling sellers to complete the entire transaction cycle within 25 days. Under the proposed system, tea is expected to be sold within 12 days, with payment to sellers completed within the subsequent 13 days. According to Sumit Agarwalla, tea producers have long been demanding that the sale of manufactured tea should not be delayed. The lengthy process involved in getting tea sold has been a major concern for producers, as the overall time taken is considerably high. He said that the Tea Board had constituted several committees to explore ways to shorten the process. “The idea behind Assam Chai Bazaar is that it should take less time to sell tea, because time is of the essence in any business transaction. If someone buys tea and gets it after a month, it does not serve the purpose,” he said. The promoters have also made arrangements for two warehouses in Dibrugarh, with a combined area of around 40,000 square feet, besides another 5,000-square-foot warehouse in Guwahati. They stated that tea-producing areas within a radius of around 120 km, including adjoining districts and parts of Arunachal Pradesh, account for nearly 55 per cent of Assam’s tea production, representing a significant tea-producing belt. The promoters said that the new auction platform is expected to provide tea producers with a more efficient and accessible mechanism for selling their produce while reducing delays and associated transaction costs.