- This article is about the city. For the district,
see Narayanganj
District
.
Narayanganj (Bengali: নারায়ণগঞ্জ Naraeongônj)
is a city in central Bangladesh
. It is located in the Narayanganj
District, 20 km southeast from the capital city of Dhaka
and has a
population of 1.5 million. The city is on the bank of the
Shitalakshya River. It is the
oldest and the most prominent
river port
of Bangladesh, grew into a place of trade and commerce and
therefore, became known as a ganj.. Narayanganj is one of the
industrial areas of Bangladesh. It is a center of business and
industry, especially the
jute trade and
processing plants, and the
textile sector of
the country.
It is nicknamed the Dundee
of
Bangladesh due to the presence of lots of jute mills. Dundee
was the first industrialized Juteopolis in the world.
History
The town got its name from Bicon Lal Pandey, a
Hindu religious leader who was also known as Benur
Thakur or
Lakhsmi Narayan Thakur. He leased the area from
the
British East India
Company in 1766 following the
Battle of Plassey. He donated the markets
and the land on the banks of the river as
Devottor or
Given to God property, bequethed for maintenance expenses
for the worship of the god
Narayan.Narayanganj municipality was constituted on
September 8,
1876 to
control an area of 4.5 square miles with a population of 27,876. It
had 12 commissioners, 4 nominated and 8 elected, including the
town's important jute merchants, one of whom was always the
chairman in the past.
According to available records, it was
considered as a model municipality in the province of Bengal
. The
town, the market, the roads and the surroundings were neat and
clean and well maintained. The drainage system was in order. The
water works of the municipality were erected at a cost of Rs
200,000 from private subscription by the European jute merchants of
the town. The name of the first Bangali elected Chairman of
Narayanganj Municipality was Syed Mohammad Maleh.
A post office was set up in 1866, and Dhaka-Narayanganj telegraph
service was started from 1877. The Bank of Bengal introduced the
first telephone service in
1882. In 1952, the
area of Narayanganj municipality was extended up to 7.5 sq miles by
a declaration of the Dhaka Judge court.
Geography
Narayanganj district is bounded by Gazipur and Narsingdi districts
on the north, Brahmanbaria and Comilla districts on the east,
Munshiganj district on the south, and Dhaka district on the west.
Geologically, the area lies on the edge of the Madhupur tract and
the Holocene floodplain deposits form the aquifer. The total area
of the district is 759.57 sq km., of which 48.56 sq km. is reverine
and 0.60 sq km. is under forest. The district lies between
23°33´and 23°57´north latitude and between 90°26´ and 90°45´ east
longitude.
It is flanked by the Shitalakshya River on the east and the
Buriganga
river on the south and southwest. The
Shitalakshya River divides the town into two parts, the Narayanganj
Municipal Area and Kadam Rasul Municipal Area. This area is crossed
by many small artificial canals fed by
monsoon rain. Average annual
rainfall is 2550 mm, 80 to 90% of which occurs
between May and October.
Narayanganj port
A street view of Narayanganj
Narayanganj is connected to Dhaka by three
metaled roads and a meter gauge rail line as well as by waterways
through the rivers Buriganga and Shitalakshya River. Steamer services
from Narayanganj started in
1862.
At that time, steamer
and rail routes via Goalanda and Narayanganj connected Dhaka with
Calcutta
.
Narayanganj was then known more as the port
of Dhaka.
It
constituted the great mart east of Sirajganj
on the Jamuna, and had
regular steam communication with
Calcutta, Sylhet, Assam
and
Kachar. Narayanganj port then carried on an
extensive trade with Calcutta, importing cloth, piece goods,
salt, etc., and exporting country produce of all kinds, especially
jute and seeds. The port had trade with Chittagong
, which imported cotton, timber, oil, hides etc from
Narayanganj and exported tobacco, pottery, and country
produce. The trade of Narayanganj with Rangun (Yangon) and
Akyab comprised import of timber, cotton, catechu, etc, and export
of
tobacco,
betel
nut, etc. The
British
government declared Narayanganj as a tax-free port in
1879, a move which attracted many
English people to come and start businesses
in Narayanganj.
Present day Narayanganj port was formally opened in June 1955.
Facilities include a two-storied terminal building, seven RCC
jetties, ten pontoon jetties, and a number of warehouses covering a
total floor space of 62,000 sq ft. Many private industrial
establishments such as jute processing industries have their own
berthing and handling facilities. Narayanganj has been for
centuries a river port, mainly serving local agriculture and the
jute trade. Its proximity to Dhaka favored the development of light
industry, and it is now a national
textile manufacturing centre, with
factories undertaking all stages of
production, from
spinning,
dyeing/
bleaching and weaving to the making of
garments and other finished cloth products. Other
industries include
soap making,
hosiery,
metal
re-rolling, and metal & wood furniture manufacture.
Trade and commerce
Narayanganj grew in importance after the arrival of the
Portuguese and the English traders during
the early parts of the 17th and 18th centuries respectively. The
first foreign company to start jute business in Narayanganj was the
Ralli Brothers, which, with the help
of an Assamese company, started to export jute from the port to the
western countries in 1830. There were 20 firms at Narayanganj in
1907-08 engaged in the purchase, bailing and supply of raw jute to
Calcutta mills.
Of these, 18 were in European and two in Indian
ownership.
Jute industry
With
formation of Pakistan
in 1947, things changed overnight.
Narayanganj, which was simply a jute market, had to be converted
into an industrial center of jute. All the jute mills and presses
in and around Calcutta fell to the share of India.
East Pakistan was rich in the golden fiber but
had no jute mill and had a very small baling capacity, which had to
be increased within a short time to meet the overseas demand. The
business community took up the required initiative. The Adamjees of
West Pakistan came into the field at this stage and established the
biggest jute mill in the world at Narayanganj. The
Adamjee Jute Mills started production by
December 12,
1951.
The first jute mill of the town was, however, established by the
Bawa Group (also of West Pakistan) at Sonakanda of
Narayanganj.
Textile and cotton industry
Sonargaon is historically famous for
manufacturing a species of very fine
muslin.
John Crawford, who was for a long time in the
service of the East India
Company, stated to a Committee of the House of
Commons of the United Kingdom
in 1830-31 that the fine variety of cotton in the neighborhood of Dhaka, from which
the fine muslin were produced, was cultivated
by the natives alone and was not at all known in the English market, or even in
Calcutta.
The
Dhakeshwari Cotton Mill of Narayanganj, established by Babu Surya
Kumar Bose on the bank of the Shitalakshya in 1927, was the first
textile mill in the whole British
district of Dhaka. The Chittaranjan Cotton
Mill was established in 1929. Babu Ramesh Chandra Roy Chowdhury, a
professor of chemistry at the
Jagannath College established the Luxmi
Narayan Cotton Mill in 1932. The Dhakeshwari opened a second mill
in 1937.
Narayanganj is also the principal hosiery
manufacturing centre of Bangladesh. The first hosiery factory was established
in 1921. The factory named as Hangsha Hosiery at Tanbazar started
its operations with four hand-driven ribbon machines. A major
factor that promoted the expansion of hosiery industry at
Narayanganj is its location on the bank of the Shitalakshya, which
facilitated transportation of raw materials and the finished
products and supplied good water to wash knitted clothes. At
present, Narayanganj is one of the main centres for the garments
industries. There are more than a dozen soap factories at
Narayanganj. There are some silicate factories too. Narayanganj
town also has a number of large flourmills. In the past, flour used
to come to Narayanganj from Calcutta.
Other
There is a national warehouse of the silo-type on the bank of the
Shitalakshya River at Siddirganj of Narayanganj. It is 196 feet
high and its capacity is 52,000 metric tons. Its construction
started in 1967 and was finished in 1971 with the help of a
World Bank grant of $9 million. It can
store 20 metric tons of wheat per hour, which is unloaded
automatically from ships. Wheat is then supplied from here to
different areas of the country.
Tradition and heritage
Ruins of Sonargaon, Isa Khan's capital
On the
Dhaka-Chittagong Highway
about 29 km from Dhaka, Sonargaon is one
of the oldest capitals of Bengal. It
was the seat of Deva Dynasty until the 13th century. From that
century onward till the advent of the
Mughals,
Sonargaon was the
subsidiary capital of the
Sultanate of
Bengal.
Another name of Sonargaon was "The City of Panam". Now, the relies
of buildings of the old dynasties, Goaldia Mosque and the Folklore
Museum that houses artifacts from every cultural trait of the
country increase the attractions of this place.At Jainal Abedin
Museum in Sonargaon, you will find some historical and
archeological things. Among the ancient monuments still intact are
the Tomb of Sultan Ghiasuddin, the shrines of Panjpirs and Shah
Abdul Alia and a beautiful mosque in Goaldi village. The
World Monuments Fund placed it on its
2008 Watch List of the 100 Most Endangered Sites in this
planet.
References
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