University of Development Alternative

(UODA)

NAME : Bashu Dev Shikder

ID : 081142031

Batch : 35th

Semester : 8th

Date : 22.12.2016
Narayanganj is a city in central Bangladesh. It is located in the Narayanganj District, near the
capital city of Dhaka and has a population of 220,000. The city is on the bank of the Shitalakshya
River. The river port of Narayanganj is one of the oldest in Bangladesh.[1] It is also a center of
business and industry, especially the jute trade and processing plants, and the textile sector of the
country. It is nicknamed the Dundee of Bangladesh due to the presence of its many jute mills.
Dundee was the first industrialised Juteopolis in the world.

As the capital of the fifteenth-century Bengal ruler Isa Khan, and once an important trading and
political center, Sonargaon boasts architecture of the Sultanate, Mughal, and colonial periods.
The Sonargaon historic city, located near the present-day capital of Dhaka, includes several
Mughal monumentsamong them the Sonakanda River Fort, the Panch Pir Mazar Shrine, and
Ibrahim's and Abdul Hamid's Mosque. British colonial architecture preserved in Sonargaon
includes the Ananda Mohan Piddar House, and other street-front houses. For travelers making
their way along the 2,500-kilometer Grand Trunk Road from Peshawar in the Hindu Kush,
Sonargaon marked the end of the line.

Threats to the site include flooding, vandalism, unauthorized occupation, illegal development,
poor maintenance, and earthquakes. The low-lying terrain of Bangladesh is especially vulnerable
to the impacts of global climate change, particularly flooding and rising sea levels. Currently,
most of Sonargaon's masonry buildings suffer from rising damp and biological and insect
damage to architectural woodwork. Structural failure is evident in some buildings. At several
significant monuments, restoration works have been undertaken in an ad hoc fashion by the
nation's Department of Archaeology; however that institution lacks sufficient funding to carry
out the considerable conservation work needed at the site, and requires additional support to
develop plans for the city's future.
Panam Nagar or Panam City is an earliest city of Sonargaon thana in Narayanganj district,
about 2.5 kilometers to the north of Dhaka-Chittagong Highway at Mograpara Point. Panam is
only 0.5km away from Sonargaon Folk Art Museum. It is seemed to have been the city of Hindu
capital city of Sonargaon. Panam Nagar, the gorgeous structures was rising in the last quarter
of the 13th century. After that Panam area formed part of Muslim city developed on the old city,
and perhaps made up the place of residence of the early Muslim governors.
When the Mughal took over the control of Sonagaon, they constructed highways and bridges and
made a new look of Sonagaon and Panam City. Mughal era was the most significant era for all
the region of sub-continent. Panam city has no different for this circumstances. Huge amount of
construction works and developments in the life of city dweller had been occurring in the time of
Mughal.
Some works of Mughal period still visible at present. Three brick bridges belonging to the
Mughal period are: Panam Bridge, Dalalpur Bridge, Panam Nagar Bridge. Panam Bridgeis to
be found at a little further to the east of Habibpur on a brick made road between Companiganj
and Bari-Majlish, in Sonargaon. The bridge, constructed over Pankhiraj canal on a village road
from Hajiganj to Baidyerbazar, belongs to the Mughal period. It consists of three archways, the
middle arch being wider and higher. The first one is the smaller one and the last one is greater
than the first one. DalalpurBridge, also the symbol of Mughal structurecrosses the Pankhiraj
Khal (canel) on the northern side of Panam Nagar in Sonagaon and connects Adampur and
Dalalpur. It has also three archways. It may be the tradition of Mughal artifact that the middle
arch was made wider and higher for the secure passageway of boats. The path is made of bricks
set in rounded lines. The bridge angles downward sharply on either side. The last one is Panam
Nagar Bridge. It is a tiny one vaulted overpass situated on the western side of Panam Nagar in
Sonagaon.The Bridge, over a narrow channel, attaches Panam Nagar with the main road.

A group of Hindu talukdars chose this place as their residence. The existing brick buildings of
Panamnagar were the residence of the Hindu merchant-talukdars. Panam Nagar which
developed in the nineteenth century continued to prosper till the end of the Second World War.
Panam Nagar, a unique township, Fifty two houses exist in on its last legs and abandoned
condition having 31 in the north side of the street and 21 on the south. Panam Nagar appears to
be well protected by artificial canals all around. Two fairly large canals run parallel to the street
on its either part and connected by a narrow canal on the western side over which is the entrance
bridge.

How to Go
It is about 2.5 kilometers to the north of Dhaka-Chittagong Highway at Mograpara Point. The
place is only 0.5km away from Sonargaon Folk Art Museum.The place is 38.4 km from Dhaka.
It is at Sonargaon Upazila in Narayanganj district, Bangladesh. Buses are available
from Gulistan. The journey will be easy if it is used Mayor Mohammad Hanif Flyover. Buses are
going Gulistan, Jatrabari, Dhaka-Chittagong highway. It is less the one hour journey from Dhaka
and bus fare is within Tk.50/- per person. It is better to go there on the micro car with a group.
The building structures in Panam Nagar are both separated and joined types, typically
rectangular in shape and extended in the north-south direction. Height of the buildings varies
from single to three storied. According to building layout design the residence houses of Panam
can be categorized into three basic types: central hall type, central courtyard type and
consolidated type. Here you also find a large size of house having 204 rooms in it. It is a private
property of Mr.Abdul Awal who brought this house from the inheritor of Jamidar Ram Mohan
Poddar in 1971. Panam had overall been a Hindu populated area. The migration of the Hindus to
India after the Indo-Pak War of 1965 and Muslim-Hindu riot has made Panam Nagar into a
vacant community.