Historic Naogaon cold storage on the verge of shutting down

Ganja Cooperative Cold Storage that contributed to a significant amount of income of the Naogaon Ganja Cultivators Cooperative Society is on the brink of permanent closure because of an unavailability of interested lessees and a lack of renovation.

The storage facility , located at Mukti Mor in the heart of Naogaon town, was established in 1975 to facilitate cannabis production. Since the ban on cannabis cultivation in 1987, it had been leased for a single term to store agricultural products until 2019. 

In 2020, the Ganja society put out a lease advertisement. But, no tenant expressed interest in taking a lease on the facility  having a capacity to store 3,000 tonnes of agri products, said Aminur Rahman, manager of Naogaon Ganja Cooperative Cold Storage.

In the meantime, the outbreak of the coronavirus disease interrupted the commercial activities of the country, leading to a shutdown of the cold storage for two years, he added.

As the cold store was the only facility in Naogaon city previously, it was popular among traders, especially for storing potatoes, said Anisur Rahman, office assistant of the Ganja Cooperative Cold Storage, adding that the demand for the cold storage started to decline as other private facilities were established in the district.

Currently, the district has four cold storages with a capacity of storing around five lakh sacks of potatoes. 

Besides, the authorities of the private facilities provide loans to farmers to encourage them to grow potatoes.

Since the leases of Ganja Society's cold store change from year to year, no loans are arranged for traders in this case. 

Apart from that, the building structure and machinery equipment of the facility have become outdated due to a lack of renovation. Gas retention capacity has dropped. 

Outdated equipment has also resulted in higher electricity costs, all this leading to a lack of interest on the part of potential tenants to lease the cold storage.

Meanwhile, several pieces of equipment started rusting and decaying as the storage remained closed for a long time. The cold storage, a valuable asset of the Ganja Cultivators Society, is now on the verge of shutdown.

"We have already discussed resuming the facility. A technical team has been formed for the renovation. We will start the initiative as soon as we receive a report of renovation cost from them," said Milton Chandra Roy, chairman of the ad hoc committee of the society and additional deputy commissioner.

"We found a few tenants interested in the lease but they are not interested to start in the middle of the year. As they want to take a lease at the beginning of the year, we hope we will be able to lease it in 2023," the manager of the cold storage added.

Ganja Cultivators Cooperative Society was established during the British period. At that time, cannabis was cultivated in Naogaon commercially, and there was government patronage for it. More than 7,000 farmers used to cultivate cannabis on about 10,000 hectares of land. 

Later, Naogaon Ganja Cultivators (Shareholder) Rehabilitation Cooperative Society Limited was formed to facilitate and rehabilitate cannabis cultivators. Currently, there are 6,600 members of the cooperative society.

After independence in 1971, Bangladesh signed an international anti-narcotics agreement in 1974, leading to a ban on cannabis cultivation in 1987. The ban left around 50,000 people of 7,000 families unemployed. Later, they switched to paddy, mustard, and vegetable cultivation.

Office assistant Anisur Rahman told TBS that the assets of the society, worth several thousands of crores of taka, are spread across different places of Naogaon Sadar, contributing to the development of the city for a long time.

Apart from the cold storage, the other properties of the society include 28 buildings, four warehouses, a rest house, a meeting ground, three charitable dispensaries, 11 high schools, three mosques, a temple, seven large ponds, and a lake, according to Anisur Rahman, office assistant, Ganja Cultivators Cooperative Society, he added.

The cold storage was under the Marketing Society's jurisdiction till 2004.

In 2005, it was vested in the Ganja Cultivators Cooperative Society, according to official sources of Naogaon Ganja Cultivators (Shareholder) Rehabilitation Cooperative Society Limited.

From 2006, the society leased it for a single term of Tk3,36,000, which generated an annual income of Tk10 lakh. A contractor, Sheikh Al Mamun, held the lease from 2011 to 2019, which generated an income of Tk2,12,000 per year.