Ahmedpur, Birbhum

For disambiguation see Ahmedpur

Ahmedpur আহমেদপুর
Census Town
Ahmedpur Location in West Bengal, India
Coordinates: 23°57′N 87°40′E / 23.95°N 87.67°E / 23.95; 87.67Coordinates: 23°57′N 87°40′E / 23.95°N 87.67°E / 23.95; 87.67
Country	India
State	West Bengal
District	Birbhum
Police station	Sainthia
Government
• Type	Gram Panchayat
Area
• Total	1.3 km2 (0.5 sq mi)
Population (2011)
• Total	9,242[1]
Languages
• Official	Bengali, English
Time zone	IST (UTC+5:30)
PIN	731201
Telephone code	91 3463
Lok Sabha constituency	Bolpur
Vidhan Sabha constituency	Labpur
Website	birbhum.nic.in

Ahmedpur is a Census town in the Suri Sadar subdivision of Birbhum district in the Indian state of West Bengal. Ahmedpur is under the jurisdiction of Sainthia police station. The census town is well known in the area for its sugar mill and as one end of the vintage narrow gauge railway. The office of the Block Development Officer, Sainthia Block is situated here, adjacent to the Ahmedpur railway station. It hosts a growing local business centre, being well connected with Kolkata and other cities of West Bengal via railway. Ahmedpur has an area of 1.3 square kilometres.

Geography

Ahmedpur is located in the alluvial plain of the Mayurakshi River. It has hot and dry summers, spread between March and May, followed by the monsoon from June to September. Seventy-eight percent of the rainfall occurs during this period.^[2]

Economy

Ahmedpur Sugar Mill

The West Bengal government purchased the assets of the erstwhile National Sugar Mills (in liquidation) through a court sale on 4 June 1973, providing an instrument to the West Bengal Sugar Industries Development Corporation to achieve its objective of promoting and developing sugar industry, and also ensuring protection of employment in the closed mill. After the Corporation took possession of the mill on 1 September 1973, it was renamed “Ahmedpur Sugar Mill”. It went into production in the 1974-75 season. It has a crushing capacity of 600 tonnes per day. It procures sugarcane from the area comprising whole of Birbhum District, part of Bardhaman, Nadia and its captive farms in the district of Murshidabad, covering a distance over 25 km to 130 km from the mill gate. However, the scattered situation at a far off distance from the mill is preventing it from purchase of optimum quantity of sugarcane for crushing by paying exorbitant transport charge. As a result of the peculiar difficulties for downscale plantations of sugarcane in Birbhum district and insufficient source of sugarcane from other zones, the working results of the mill for the above seasons became dismal.^[3] This sugar mill has not been functioning for around 7–8 years.

Another traditional industry is Rice milling. Ahmadpur has a number of rice mills, some of which are existing since the pre independence era. Besides, Ahmadpur has the oldest Solvent Extraction Plant for Rice Bran Oil in West Bengal.

Business

Ahmedpur is a growing centre for small and home-based business. Good connectivity to Kolkata has aided the area in developing a large market. Good transport facilities have ensured the growth of many small-scale handicraft industries around. Goats, cattle and other animals are also sold in the market of Ahmedpur.

Transport

Ahmedpur is a station on the Bardhaman – Sainthia section of Sahibganj Loop.

The 52 km long narrow gauge (2' 6") Ahmedpur Katwa Railway has attracted attention. Four pairs of trains run daily in the section. It has remained a single line since its inception. Indian Railways took over the narrow gauge tracks between Katwa and Ahmedpur, and Katwa and Bardhaman from McLoyd and Company in 1966. The railways have identified poor turnout of passengers and their unwillingness to buy tickets as the reasons behind the losses incurred by the narrow gauge section. The section is not working for last few years and the gauge conversion of the whole Ahmadpur-Katwa Stretch is currently underway.^[4]

Inhabitants

Rajat Bhusan Dutta, along with Kamada Kinkar Mukherjee(father of President Pranab MUkherjee) who was deported to Andaman Islands for 12 years for his involvement in the Birbhum Conspiracy Case, was born at Ahmedpur in 1908.^[5]

Sabari Pramanik is a brilliant girl who stay in ahemdpur. She was graduated from jadavpur university. She was born in 1992. Father's name is Patit Paban Pramanick, Mother's name is Santana Pramanick.

Education

Ahmedpur has government-aided higher-secondary schools for boys and girls, as well as primary co-education schools. The Joy Durga High School is the main school for boys in the region, situated close to the station. Students from the neighbouring villages are often seen admitted to the government schools here. Proximity and good connectivity to Burdwan encourages a good many of students to attend the University of Burdwan. Many college students from here travel to nearby village Labhpur to attend the Labhpur Shambhunath college. Sebananda Roy, Corporate Management Expart belongs from this place. Recently two B.Ed and Basic Training College added to Ahmedpur.

Connectivity

Ahmedpur JN station is an important station of Birbum District. Most people used this railway station, including parts of Burdwan & Murshidabad Dist to go to Kolkata. Most express trains are connected to Howrah/Sealdha/North-East/Bhagalpur/Patna/Delhi/Kolkata stations. Buses go daily to Labhpur and nearby villages through the Ahmedpur-Katwa road.

References