Digboi is a small but wonderful town in Tinsukia district in the north-eastern part of the state of Assam, India. Petroleum was discovered here in the late 19th century and the Digboi oilfield believed to be one of the oldest oil fields. With a significant number of British professionals working for the Assam Oil Company as late as until a decade following the independence of India, Digboi has a legacy of well-developed infrastructure and a number of bungalows unique to the town. It has a world-class golf course with 18 holes which is part of the Digboi Club.

Places to visits :

Digboi Centenary Museum :

As part of its centenary celebrations, the Assam Oil Company (part of Indian Oil) established a museum showcasing the history of the Assam Oil industry. It opened its doors in early 2002 and has a fair amount of machinery and a number of small simplex and duplex pumps. Note that the museum is closed on Monday.

Digboi War Cemetery :

During the Second World War the state of Assam, in India's Eastern Command, was an operational area of the Burma Campaign. Digboi, in the north-eastern corner of the state, near the Burmese border and on the road to Ledo, was on the lines of communication, and a military hospital was established there. Digboi War Cemetery was started for burials from the hospital and at the end of the war contained 70 burials. Later, the Army Graves Service brought in further graves from burial grounds in Panitola, Jorhat, Margherita, Tinsukia, Ledo, and as well as from the US Military Cemetery at Shingvuoiyang in Burma where permanent maintenance could not be assured. Originally the cemetery stood on a small spur rising sharply from the main road, but an earthquake in 1950 caused cracks here with one fissure extending the full length of the cemetery. Subsequent landslides occasioned by heavy rains, particularly in 1953, so endangered the cemetery that it became necessary to move the graves to the present site which was not likely to be affected by erosion. The cemetery now contains 200 Commonwealth burials of the Second World War.

Coal Heritage and Museum at Margherita : 

16 kms away from Digboi is Margherita where a museum has been established to preserve material from the over a hundred and twenty years old coal mining industry. The Margherita-Ledo coal mining story started in the year 1881 when the British-owned Assam Railways and Trading Company (ARTC) discovered the black diamond in this part of the country. Actual mining started in the year 1884. In order to preserve this heritage whatever the company used- the various types of available tools, machines, vehicles, camera projectors, important documents, photographs and the like have been displayed in the museum for public viewing.

Stilwell Road :

The historic Stilwell road was constructed by the Americans during the Second World War. It runs from Ledo in Assam, India- as it was one of the rail-heads of the Bengal-Assam railway in the valley of the Upper Brahmaputra during that time- to Burma Road connecting Assam to Kunming. It traverses through Lekhapani, Jairampur, Nampong, Pangsau pass and the India-Burma (Myanmar) border. It snakes up the passes of the 9000 feet Patkai Range and emerges at Shindbwiyang and then Myitkyina thereafter crossing the broad bowl of the Upper Chindwin, threading the Hukawng and Mogaung valleys, and then going down to Bhamo and to the Burma Road which connects Kunming, situated in the Yunnan province, China.