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~ Rupa Saikia
S
traddling a part of the National Highway 37, and
bordering the Tea town of Doom Dooma in Upper
Assam, lies the sprawling Raidang T.E. It is
actually the amalgamation of two estates and one Division
of the erstwhile Doom Dooma Tea Company Limited
holdings, which was started in the year 1859-60 by the
Warren brothers, in the old Assamese earthwork forts in
Hansara and Beesakopie. Initially a joint enterprise, this
partnership firm was later converted to a public limited
company in the year 1877, with an expansion in the
number of plantations around the town. Subsequently,
after a few changes in ownership, from the Brooke Bond
group in 1962, to Hindustan Lever in 1984, McLeod
Russel India Limited finally took over the group in the
year 2006.
Raidang has a total area of 2014.14 hectares, with 994.41
hectares under tea cultivation and another 1.43 hectares
covered by the tea and shade nurseries. It is divided into
three divisions, namely, Raidang, Hansara and Panikhowa,
of which the former two were individual estates earlier.
The Hansara T.E. became a division of this estate after the
MRIL takeover, while a section of the Panikhowa estate
which had been a part of
Samdang T.E. earlier, was
transferred to Raidang T.E.
in the year 2008-09. The
estate’s name, Raidang,
was apparently derived
from the varieties of cane
which grew wild in the
area, and was used by the
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