A limestone-rich corner of Assam just got its biggest industrial bet in years. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday, 30 October 2026, performed the Bhumi Pujan and laid the foundation stone of JK Lakshmi Cement's 'Project Kamakhya' at Umrangso, Dima Hasao — an ₹1,800 crore first-phase investment that puts one of India's most mineral-rich but industrially underserved hill districts squarely on the manufacturing map.

What 'Project Kamakhya' actually builds — and where

The first phase is a vertically integrated operation spread across three locations. At Umrangso, three limestone mines will supply raw material at the source. The extracted stone feeds an integrated cement plant at 19 Kilo, New Umrangso, designed to produce approximately 1 million tonnes each of clinker and cement annually. A dedicated cement grinding unit at Lanka, Hojai, completes the chain — positioning the finished product closer to distribution corridors in the Brahmaputra valley. The announcement came under the Advantage Assam 2 investment platform, the state government's flagship industrial outreach initiative.

Why Dima Hasao — and why now

Dima Hasao sits on some of Assam's most significant limestone reserves, a geological fact that successive state governments noted but struggled to translate into factories and jobs. The district sits in Assam's southern hill belt, historically reliant on central transfers and agriculture, with limited large-scale private manufacturing. JK Lakshmi Cement, one of India's established cement producers, is making a resource-linked bet — anchoring extraction and processing at the deposit itself rather than importing raw material from outside the region.

The Assam government has systematically used the Advantage Assam summits to pull exactly this kind of investment: capital that pairs local mineral wealth with processing infrastructure, generating downstream employment outside traditional sectors. Multi-phase project structures like this one also signal sustained investor commitment rather than a one-time headline announcement.

Employment, environment, and the phases ahead

The state government's announcement flags employment generation and acceleration of industrial development as key outcomes. The project's full investment quantum across multiple phases has not been disclosed, with the ₹1,800 crore figure representing only phase one. What to watch closely: the pace of environmental and mining clearances — limestone extraction in hill districts involves multi-agency regulatory steps — and the reported job numbers as each phase moves from groundbreaking to operation. Lanka in Hojai district, the grinding unit's location, sits in the Brahmaputra plains, making it a natural last-mile link in the supply chain.

For a state that has long framed its hill districts as growth frontiers waiting for catalysts, a ₹1,800 crore cement complex with its own mine-to-grinder value chain is exactly the kind of anchor investment the playbook calls for. The foundation stone is in the ground — now the harder work of execution begins.