Ruhul Amin, Rupgonj

Land prices in the capital have increased abnormally . Rupganj in Narayanganj has become the first choice of businessmen for setting up industrial factories . In the last few years, along with the industrialization , the population here is also increasing rapidly . Many institutional - non-institutional and private businessmen of the housing sector have flocked to get the opportunity . The township is being covered in concrete at a very fast rate due to unplanned industrialization and residential commercial expansion . Even at the beginning of this century , the amount of land covered with concrete here was 197 hectares. Since then, the area of land covered by concrete has increased by almost 800 percent in the last two decades.

Locals say that the price of land in Dhaka is sky high now . As an area near the capital , Rupganj has become an attractive place for industrial owners and businessmen in the housing sector. At one time there were many brick kilns here . At that time the harvest was very less. At present , the number of brick kilns has decreased but the situation has not been changed . Rather, with the growth of industrialization and the expansion of housing business, urbanization is also happening rapidly. At the same time, the green area of Rupganj is decreasing.

According to the data published in the Journal of Economics and Sustainable Development ( JESD ) , the area of land covered by concrete in 1990 due to urbanization in Rupganj was 53 hectares. In 1995 it stood at 76 hectares. In 2000 , at the beginning of this century , its area was 197 hectares. In 2010 it stood at 627 hectares. Then in 2017 , the amount of land covered with concrete in the township stood at 1 thousand 766 hectares. Accordingly , between 2000 and 2017 , the amount of land covered with concrete in Rupganj has increased by more than 796 percent .

The population here has also increased very rapidly . According to the statistics of the World Population Review Report , the population of Rupganj in Narayanganj was 9 thousand 682 in 1950 . Until 1990 , the annual population growth rate here was stable at 4-5 percent. In the last decade of the last century , the rate of population growth in Rupganj became very slow . In 2000 , the annual population growth rate in the area was only 88 percent. But after 2001 it became dynamic again . From 2002 to 2018, the annual population growth rate here was more than 10 percent . But it has slowed down a bit over the years . The population growth rate in Rupganj was 9.74 percent in 2019 . Then the population of Rupganj increased by 9.19 percent in 2020 and last year by 8.44 percent .

Going to Tarabo Union of Rupganj , it can be seen that many industries have been developed in the area . The arable land in the area has decreased and the dominance of housing sector institutions has increased a lot. Locals said that earlier the number of jute mills in these areas was high. At present garment and yarn factories dominate . Rupganj is lagging behind in the development of communication infrastructure despite the increase in industrial establishments . Although there is Sylhet highway on the north side of Rupganj and Chittagong highway on the east side , people are suffering due to lack of expansion of roads inside Rupganj .

Rupganj acting Upazila Chairman Fardousi Alam Nila told Country Today that apart from industries , housing business has increased at a great rate in the last decade in Rupganj . In this case, there has been serious damage to the agricultural land . Housing business is gradually increasing here . Naturally, there are also many Bhuifond institutions . People are also being accused of being cheated .

Locals say that before independence , Rupganj's industrialization was limited to jute and yarn factories . Even in Bangladesh , the pace of industrialization was very slow until the 1990s . At the end of the last century , the area began to industrialize rapidly . After that, in the last two decades , thousands of small and big factories have been built in Rupganj . Among them are Gazi Group , City Group , Pran - RFL Group , Amber Group , Banglacat , Robintech , Square , Bangladesh Melamine and other big textile and spinning factories . An economic zone has also been developed .

Gauchia Market, the largest cloth market in the country , is located in Rupganj. Mustafizur Rahman Bhuiyan Dipur's family has been living here for a long time . He sees this rapid change of the area as positive . He told Vanik Barta that Rupganj has been known as an industrial area since the British period . A number of cotton and jute mills already existed, including the Gauchia cotton mill . After independence , the number of business and industrial establishments continued to grow here . Coming to the present time , I can say that there is no difference in the quality of life of Rupganj with the capital Dhaka . Due to the neighboring area of Dhaka , the Purbachal project is happening here , the trade fair has come , in the near future it will be seen that various embassies will move around Purbachal . As the business environment here is good , all the businessmen of the country have their first look here.

He also said that once there were hundreds of brick kilns in Rupganj . There was no crop here because of the brick kiln . Due to the establishment of industrial establishments here , unemployment problem has been solved on the one hand , also people have become self-reliant through small shops . All in all, big changes can be seen in Rupganj in the last two decades .

When asked about the rapid expansion of the area , Narayanganj - 1 ( Rupganj ) Constituency Member of Parliament and ex Minister of Textiles and Jute Golam Dastgir Gazi told Country Today that there was a bustling business center for jute and yarn here long ago . However, as the Bengalis were employed earlier , the locals could not benefit much from these businesses . After the independence of the country , Bengalis started to become traders . Earlier, there were small factories in Rupganj , but in the last two decades , many big factories have been built here . Due to the easy availability of electricity and gas connection , Rupganj has become the first choice of businessmen . Besides, there is no need to suffer any kind of harassment in the case of selling land here . The image here has changed rapidly in the last 10 years especially due to the business friendly environment . Communication system is also improving.