Adamjee Jute Mill was a jute mill in Bangladesh. It was established in

Narayanganj Narayanganj ( bn, নারায়ণগঞ্জ ''Naraeongônj'') is a city in central Bangladesh. It is in the Narayanganj District, about southeast of the capital city of Dhaka, and has a population of about 2 million. It is the 6th larges ...

in 1950 by the Adamjee Group. It was the second jute mill in

East Pakistan East Pakistan was a Pakistani province established in 1955 by the One Unit Scheme, One Unit Policy, renaming the province as such from East Bengal, which, in modern times, is split between India and Bangladesh. Its land borders were with India ...

(present day Bangladesh) after Bawa Jute Mill which was first Jute Mill in East Pakistan (Present day Bangladesh). Gradually, the mill became the largest

jute mill A jute mill is a factory for processing jute. The first jute mill was established in Dundee, Scotland. The world's largest jute mill was the Adamjee Jute Mills at Narayanganj in Bangladesh. It closed all operations during 2002. Jack London worked ...

in the world, exceeding the jute mills of Calcutta (now

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

), India, and

Dundee Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...

, Scotland. The mills were nationalised after the

independence of Bangladesh Independence of Bangladesh was declared on 26 March 1971, celebrated as Independence Day, from Pakistan. The Independence Day of Bangladesh is celebrated on 26 March when Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declared the Independence of Bangladesh. The Bangladesh ...

in 1972. It was operated by the

Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation, often abbreviated and known as BJMC is a public corporation that owns and manages all government jute factories and industries in Bangladesh and is located in the capital city of Dhaka. It also owns several pub ...

before being closed down in 2002.

History

Adamjee Jute Mills was set up by

Abdul Wahid Adamjee Abdul Wahid Adamjee (born 1908) was a Pakistani industrialist. Early life Adamjee was born in 1908 in Rangoon, Burma, British India. He completed his education in Burma. He was the eldest son of Adamjee Haji Dawood, the founder of Adamjee Group ...

, Pakistan's foremost industrialist, and scion of the wealthiest family in the country. Initially, the said project was a partnership between the Adamjees and the PICIC (the government's industrial arm). The Adamjee family, however, soon took control of the project, and eventually built it into the largest jute mill in the world. In 1947 when India was partitioned there were 108 jute mills in Bengal but all were located in West Bengal which went to India. After the Independence of Pakistan, Muslim entrepreneurs were asked by the government of Pakistan to create proposals for a jute mill in East Bengal. The Adamjee Group in December 1949 presented the government of Pakistan a proposal for the jute plant. The capital for the mills were to be provided by Adamjee Brothers and the

Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC) ( ur, ) is a state corporation of Pakistan working under Ministry of Industries and Production. It was established in 1952. PIDC was created to set up industries in such fields where large cap ...

50-50 equally. Siddhirganj was chosen as the site of mill due to the good river, road, and rail communication facilities. The mill was established in December 1951. In May 1954 violence clashes took place between Bengali and Bihari workers at the jute mills. The Police and East Pakistan Rifles had been deployed to control the situation. In the clashes 90 were killed and 250 injured. The Adamjee family lost control of the mill in 1971 during the

Bangladesh Liberation War The Bangladesh Liberation War ( bn, মুক্তিযুদ্ধ, , also known as the Bangladesh War of Independence, or simply the Liberation War in Bangladesh) was a revolution and War, armed conflict sparked by the rise of the Benga ...

and it was nationalized after the Independence of Bangladesh. During the war Bengali workers were replaced by Bihari workers in the. After the war ended, the Bihari workers in the factory were protected by the Indian Army. It employed over 25,000 workers when it was closed on 30 June 2002. Since the nationalization the mill had accumulated 12 billion taka in losses.

Present

After a strong battle for survival, Adamjee Jute Mills was officially closed down in 2002 despite huge protests from local policy makers and political opponents. In that place, a new industrial zone has been installed,

Adamjee Export Processing Zone Adamjee Export Processing Zone also known as Narayanganj Epz is a special economic zone for producing export oriented products located in the industrial city of Siddhirganj, Bangladesh. Established in 2006, it has 245 acres of land with 229 ind ...

. In August 2011, the jute and textiles ministry sent a proposal to the prime minister of Bangladesh seeking her approval for rebuilding the second unit of the Adamjee Jute Mills in Narayanganj on 11 acres of land at an estimated cost of Tk 6087.2 million.

References

{{authority control Textile companies of Bangladesh Jute mills Government-owned companies of Bangladesh Organisations based in Narayanganj Pakistani companies established in 1950 Renewable resource companies established in 1950 Manufacturing companies established in 1950 Jute industry of Bangladesh