Farmgate: The Heart of Dhaka

 

Introduction To Farmgate

Farmgate, one of the busiest and crowded area of Dhaka city, connects major areas of the capital of Bangladesh. It’s gained commercial importance because of its transportation roots and massive buildings since 20^th century. Line 6 of metro rail has a station here. This area is mostly of commercial infrastructures of all types like roadside temporary shops, food carts, commercial markets, hawkers and so on. Kawran Bazar, national parliament, Panthapath, Raja bazar, Bangla motor, Tejgaon are the nearby areas of Farmgate which are also major areas of Dhaka. Most of the public transport like buses and tempu passes through this area as it is the center of Dhaka and linked with most of many important areas. But, due to indiscipline acts and negligence of authority chaos and anarchy is getting created in this area.

 

Commercial Scenery of Dhaka’s Center

Farmgate plays role as one of the important commercial hubs of Dhaka. In Farmgate one can get various products in super markets and road side temporary shops. Dhaka's biggest sanitary market and Green Super Market are there. Another busy market, Sezan Market is also located in Farmgate. Generally, those products are low in cost. It’s one of the specialties of there. One may get branded and costly products also in market shops. Garments item, accessories, tools are prime item there. We can see three types of customers here. Initially, those customers who just ask for the cost and walk away. There motive is to have idea about products cost. They are mainly passersby or travelers. Secondly, among the passersby or travelers some of them explore the market and if they find anything interesting or necessary, they buy it also. Usually, they have no plan of buying products or there is no need. It depends on their mood and choice. The third type of customers are as normal customers, who go there for shopping. The shopkeepers there try to sell products in high cost, so they ask for four to ten times more cost than there purchasing rate. Roadside shopkeepers have to give a specific amount of money to an unofficial authority for setting shop beside the road. Even if there’s less sale a day, they still have to give the money. That day, they may not have their food, as most of them lives hand to mouth. So, a group of people prefers being hawker and stand in a corner of the road or walk along the area and sell there products just to skip the spending of setting a shop. In the discussion of food carts, hotels and street foods one will get a huge variety of street foods there. Most of them are good in test and tempting enough to attract the passersby and travelers. 

 

Location and Surroundings of Farmgate

As this area is located in the middle of the town; Farmgate is practically the center of Dhaka. Being a megacity and capital, many Governmental offices, NGOs, educational institutions, commercial and business institutions are located there. Moreover, Ananda Cinema Hall, one of the famous and traditional movie theaters, is located here. So, most of the transports like bus and tempu cross this area to move to other areas. As a result, we can see traffic is a common scene there since early morning till late night. Bijoyshoroni, Khamarbari, Banani, cantonment, Mirpur, Tejgaon, airport etc. are in the north side of this area. Again, we can find Hatirjhil, Gulshan, Ramna, Magbazar, Shanti Nagar etc. major areas in east. At west, there is Dhanmondi, Gabtoli, Newmarket and at south Chawkbazar, Panthapath, Green Road, Nilkhet, Puran Dhaka and so on. We will see educational institutions like Tejgaon Government Girls High School, Holy Cross High School and College, Asia Pacific University and so on there also. There are branches of many educational coaching center also. Line 6 of the Dhaka Metro Rail has a station in Farmgate near Khamarbari Road. In the very first of 20^th century there was the biggest and tallest buildings of the city. In that time Farmgate was quite famous for its massive buildings.

 Here's the location in Google map for Farmgate:

Location of Farmgate

Scenery of Farmgate and Its Anarchy

Some interesting and unique scenes one can see there, like road side magic show, a group of people advising herbal treatment with tree roots, seeds, tree sap and so on. Sometime a boy sitting over a big elephant can be seen collecting money from peoples, shops and passengers of transports. We may experience of facing woman having snake in her arms asking for money by scaring public with the snake. Two more groups are seen collecting money from public, they are Hijra and Bedouin. As Farmgate is a busy and crowded place, there is high risk of being stolen. So passersby have to stay careful of there bags, moneybag, mobile and other valuable stuffs of them. A group of hawkers stay busy selling water, snacks, accessories and medicines in buses. They keep changing bus and try hard to sell their products to the travelers. Recently, many illegal businesses like drug dealing, fake document making getting revealed in Farmgate, which creates anarchy in the surroundings. Robbery and snatching in the day light is also another common incident in this area. There are some residential hotels for staying for travelers outside the city. As there are so many bus counters as well as Mohakhali bus terminal is also near Farmgate, most of the passengers outside Dhaka who have no shelter here prefers those residential areas mostly. There’s an over bridge also in which we will see hawkers also. Besides, some passersby used to jump over the road divider to cross the road instead of over bridge. Passersby will notice illegal parking by the sides of road, which creates difficulty for the transportation system. Again, tempus and buses park anywhere for picking or dropping passengers. Accident of transports is a common scene there.

 

Tensions and Badly Needed Steps for Farmgate’s Anarchy

Nowadays, going farmgate is another name of fear because of anarchy all around the area. People have to stay alert when they are in this area. Dhaka is the capital of the Bangladesh, and Farmgate is in its center. So, the importance of this area is very significant. But there is many indiscipline in this area which make the area dangerous and risky. Again, the roads and transportation system need upgradation and strict rules also. Roadside temporary shops make the footpath and road tiny and chaotic. Authority needs to look after those shops. Again, we notice extortion here in multiple ways, which need to be stop. Besides, illegal businesses need to be prohibited. Again, security alert needs to be increased to reduce robbery and snatching. All those chaos makes passersby, travelers and other public disturbed and scared. Authority needs to work for bringing back the discipline in Farmgate and keep holding the fame and significance of this area.