Steel city of Patenga
Saturday, 24 April 2010
Nehal Adil
Patenga was known as a weather observation centre in undivided India forecasting subcontinent's weather, now it is known as a steel city, the hub of the country's scrapped steel industry.
Scandinavia was once the hub of the global shipbuilding industry. Then it shifted to Korea and Japan. Now Bangladesh is getting a part of the global share.
Yasmin Kabir, Bangladesh's famous filmmaker, who previously worked in Los Angeles, made a documentary on the life of the workers of the scrapped steel industry at Patenga.
Patenga is situated on the outskirts of Chitagong, a city of five million, which attract workers from all over the country, even from far north. Chitagong is considered the commercial and financial capital of Bangladesh. It has been visited by Arab, Chinese and African traders from time immemorial. Arabs called it part of the kingdom of Harakand or Arakan. The Arabs called the Bay of Bengal a sea of Harakand. The Arab legends say people of Harakand or Arakan were the world's best ship-builder.
Their ships would be built with Mahogany timber in the hill forests. Those ships would ply by sails made of excellent cotton. But those days are gone. Now ships are built of steel and run by engines. Patenga builds them. It is the steel city.
All that is done with the shipbreaking industry is based on imported old ships. Old ships, even those used during the first world war are brought in here and scrapped to get steel out of it.
India and Pakistan produce steel with their own iron ore, but our iron ore remains unutilised. It is said CHT, Sylhet and Pirganj in Dnajpur are rich in iron ore. Water is red in Khagrachhari and Sylhet, because of high iron contents.
We are told import of scrapped steel is more viable and economic. For the time, it is. But in the long term perspective it is not, though Bangladesh is called the hub of the world's scrapped steel industry.
It was first started by the Ittefaq Foundry owned by the Sharif Family. They produced Ittefaq fan popular in the then East Pakistan. They made other steel products. It was said to be of the family of Pakistan's former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
The Sharif family had its root in Amritsar with some connection in Vikrampur in Bangladesh. They pulled out of Bangladesh after its liberation. Nawaz bought old ships from Sweden and Norway and started a scrapped steel industry in Dubai. After the emergence of Bangladesh the Sharif family became an industrial giant in Pakistan, but the scrapped steel industry in Bangladesh was picked up by Bangalees.
Some of them had studied in Scandinavia and Germany acquiring great expertise in steel and shipbuilding. They met first the demands of the local craft--small fishing boats, ferry boats and launches. But they then started making sea going vessels. This attracted foreign customers.
The Awami League government at the centre under Hussein Shahid Suhrawardy took the steps for Pakistan's first steel mill at Chittagong. It was scrap-based. There was talk of bringing ore from Portuguese Goa. But soon Goa was liberated by India and there was no hope to get ore from there. Ironically there was no effort to explore our own ore. The scrap-based government-owned steel mill was closed by the then industries minister Tofail Ahmed. This helped create the steel city of Patenga. The coastal land formed across the coast was reportedly grabbed by the ship-breakers. As the labour was cheap, production cost was fantastically low.
As such, within a short time the industry had made a global inroad. I was told Bangladesh's steel breaking industry has surpassed Indian, Pakistani, even Dubai's shipbreaking ones. The cheap labour cost and the silent suffering of the workers that Yasmin portrayed made it possible.
The ship-breaking industry provides steel, not only for making ships, but nearly the entire demand for steel in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh needs two million tonnes of steel every year and it is nearly entirely provided by the ship-breaking industry.
They provide steel for the high-rise buildings of our megalopolis for bridges and culverts and agricultural tools. Our economic development and industrialisation could go faster, if we could have greater supply of steel. For that, Patenga needs to grow bigger and bigger. But can the world supply us all the scraps we need?
The best Solution would be ore-based steel mill in areas where ore is available.
This would restore the beauty of Patenga and end the silent sufferings of the steel city that Yasmin Kabir presented.
Patenga was known as a weather observation centre in undivided India forecasting subcontinent's weather, now it is known as a steel city, the hub of the country's scrapped steel industry.
Scandinavia was once the hub of the global shipbuilding industry. Then it shifted to Korea and Japan. Now Bangladesh is getting a part of the global share.
Yasmin Kabir, Bangladesh's famous filmmaker, who previously worked in Los Angeles, made a documentary on the life of the workers of the scrapped steel industry at Patenga.
Patenga is situated on the outskirts of Chitagong, a city of five million, which attract workers from all over the country, even from far north. Chitagong is considered the commercial and financial capital of Bangladesh. It has been visited by Arab, Chinese and African traders from time immemorial. Arabs called it part of the kingdom of Harakand or Arakan. The Arabs called the Bay of Bengal a sea of Harakand. The Arab legends say people of Harakand or Arakan were the world's best ship-builder.
Their ships would be built with Mahogany timber in the hill forests. Those ships would ply by sails made of excellent cotton. But those days are gone. Now ships are built of steel and run by engines. Patenga builds them. It is the steel city.
All that is done with the shipbreaking industry is based on imported old ships. Old ships, even those used during the first world war are brought in here and scrapped to get steel out of it.
India and Pakistan produce steel with their own iron ore, but our iron ore remains unutilised. It is said CHT, Sylhet and Pirganj in Dnajpur are rich in iron ore. Water is red in Khagrachhari and Sylhet, because of high iron contents.
We are told import of scrapped steel is more viable and economic. For the time, it is. But in the long term perspective it is not, though Bangladesh is called the hub of the world's scrapped steel industry.
It was first started by the Ittefaq Foundry owned by the Sharif Family. They produced Ittefaq fan popular in the then East Pakistan. They made other steel products. It was said to be of the family of Pakistan's former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
The Sharif family had its root in Amritsar with some connection in Vikrampur in Bangladesh. They pulled out of Bangladesh after its liberation. Nawaz bought old ships from Sweden and Norway and started a scrapped steel industry in Dubai. After the emergence of Bangladesh the Sharif family became an industrial giant in Pakistan, but the scrapped steel industry in Bangladesh was picked up by Bangalees.
Some of them had studied in Scandinavia and Germany acquiring great expertise in steel and shipbuilding. They met first the demands of the local craft--small fishing boats, ferry boats and launches. But they then started making sea going vessels. This attracted foreign customers.
The Awami League government at the centre under Hussein Shahid Suhrawardy took the steps for Pakistan's first steel mill at Chittagong. It was scrap-based. There was talk of bringing ore from Portuguese Goa. But soon Goa was liberated by India and there was no hope to get ore from there. Ironically there was no effort to explore our own ore. The scrap-based government-owned steel mill was closed by the then industries minister Tofail Ahmed. This helped create the steel city of Patenga. The coastal land formed across the coast was reportedly grabbed by the ship-breakers. As the labour was cheap, production cost was fantastically low.
As such, within a short time the industry had made a global inroad. I was told Bangladesh's steel breaking industry has surpassed Indian, Pakistani, even Dubai's shipbreaking ones. The cheap labour cost and the silent suffering of the workers that Yasmin portrayed made it possible.
The ship-breaking industry provides steel, not only for making ships, but nearly the entire demand for steel in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh needs two million tonnes of steel every year and it is nearly entirely provided by the ship-breaking industry.
They provide steel for the high-rise buildings of our megalopolis for bridges and culverts and agricultural tools. Our economic development and industrialisation could go faster, if we could have greater supply of steel. For that, Patenga needs to grow bigger and bigger. But can the world supply us all the scraps we need?
The best Solution would be ore-based steel mill in areas where ore is available.
This would restore the beauty of Patenga and end the silent sufferings of the steel city that Yasmin Kabir presented.