Comilla District information

Posted In: Chittagong, by on May, 14 2011. 16 Comments

Comilla District is a district of Chittagong division of Bangladesh. This district was established as a district of Bengal by the British in 179. Previous Sub-divisions Brahmanbaria and Chandpur eventually became separate districts in 1984. Comilla district consists of the following upazilas: Brahmanpara Upazila, Burichong Upazila, Chandina Upazila, Chauddagram Upazila, Daudkandi Upazila, Debidwar Upazila, Homna Upazila, Comilla Adarsa Sadar Upazila, Laksam Upazila, Monohorgonj Upazila, Meghna Upazila, Muradnagar Upazila, Nangalkot Upazila, Comilla Sadar South Upazila, Titas Upazila.

Boundary: Comilla is bordered by Brahmanbaria and Narayanganj districts to the north, Noakhali and Feni districts to the south, Tripura of India to the east, and Munshiganj and Chandpur districts to the west.

Area: 3085.17 square km.

Major rivers: Gumti and Little Feni.

Main occupations : Agriculture 43.28%, commerce 11.6%, service 10.78%, transport 3.36%, agricultural labourer 15.89%, wage labourer 2.46%, construction 1.03%, and others 11.6%.

Main crops: Paddy, jute, wheat, mustard seed, brinjal. Linseed, sesame, sweet potato, china and kaun are also found.

Marks of the War of Liberation : Mass killing site: 5. They are Laksham, Comilla Cantonment, Homna, Beltali and Rasulpur.
Mass graves are at Betiara, Muzaffarganj, Nagaripara, Cantonment, Krishnapur, Dhananjay, Dilabad and Laksham Bidi Factory.
Memorials are at Comilla Victoria College, Betiara, Police Line, Cantonment, Laksham, Polytechnic Institution and Haratali.

Mineral resources: Comilla has natural gas (Bakharabad in Sreekail). Bakhrabad gas field lies in the Muradnagar upazila under Comilla district. Bakhrabad gas field was discovered by Pakistan Shell Oil Co. Ltd. in 1969. The Bakhrabad anticline, as defined by seismic, is a narrow, elongate almost symmetrical fold about 69 km long up to 10 km wide. Total recoverable gas reserved in this field re-estimated by Hydrocarbon Unit is 1,049 billion cubic feet (29.7 km3).

Distance from capital: 100 kilometers.

Transportation: Comilla is the transit point between Dhaka-Chittagong routes. Comilla is known as the hub of road communication of eastern part of Bangladesh and has good communication network. One of the oldest highways of the Indian Sub-continent, ‘The Grand Trunk Road’ has approached through the city.
Comilla can be travelled by railway also. The trains have to travel 197 kilometers and takes over 3 hours to Comilla.
Comilla has an airport also. So people can use that internally in the country.

Specialty of the district: historical Grand Trunk Road is in Comilla. Comilla’s Court Road is an extension of historic Grand Trunk Road, to communicate with the port facilities of Chittagong.
Recently Comilla has been flourished through trade and cottage industries, especially the ‘Khadi’ textile.
For the economic development the “Bangladesh Export Promotion Zone Authority” has established the “Comilla Export Processing Zone” in the Comilla old Airport Area.
There is a Cantonment in Comilla which is the oldest in East Bengal.
Comilla is famous for its sweetmeats. Comilla is also noted for potteries of Bijoypur and Batik printed cloth.
The people of Comilla are multiethnic. To some extent, there is more Afghan and British heritage in Comilla. Green or hazel eyes are more common in Comilla than in other parts of Bangladesh.

Major educational institutions:
Comilla is well known as a city for education. The Comilla Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education is located in Comilla. This is the central administration that conducts primary, secondary, and higher secondary education for several districts. This board has a very good record of results.
Comilla University is a new University which is financed by Bangladesh Government. Comilla University (a public university) is located at Kotbari Comilla, Bangladesh.
Comilla Medical College is a renowned medical college located in Comilla, Bangladesh. It is a Government medical college and admits 100 students into the 5 year MBBS degree programme.It was established in 1992.
Comilla Victoria College is a college situated in Comilla, Bangladesh which is one of the oldest and renowned colleges in Comilla as well as in Chittagong division.Comilla Zilla School is another ancient institution in Comilla. Comilla Zilla School was established in the year of 1837.
Comilla district has the most junior Cadet College for boys. This is the 10th Cadet College in Bangladesh. There are also a lot of educational institutions in Bangladesh.

Notable personality: Some noble persons for who Comilla is proud.
Mahasthabir Shilvadra(529-654) was a great Buddhist monk & pandit, professor & chancellor of Nalanda Bihar
Nowab Faizunnesa Chowdhurani(1834–1903) was Landlady, poet & philanthropist.
Dhirendranath Datta(1886–1971) was Political leader, provincial minister of the than East Pakistan, Language Movement activist & lawyer.
Buddhadeb Basu (1908–1974) was a Bangla poet, novelist, essayist, translator & editor.
Kailashchandra singha(1851–1914) was historian & archaeologist (author of ‘Rajmala’ and many historic books on tippera, sylhet, comilla & noakhali area).
Nowab Musharaf Hussen(1871–1966) was a politician, education minister, member of Bengal legislative assembly
Maheshchandra vottracharjya(1858–1944) was a philanthropist, munificent & writer (founder of Iswar patsala, ram mala hostel, library & 35 educational institutions and many other charitable organizations in Comilla & other parts of the then Bengal & India).
Sachin Dev Burman(1906–1975) was a famous singer, composer & music director.

Comilla town:
The town is the headquarters of Comilla . This has a total area of 11.47 square kilometers. It consists of 18 mouzas and 3 wards. Comilla thana was officially converted into an upazilla in 1983 which contains one municipality 18 wards, 19 union parishads, 452 mouzas and 458 villages. Comilla is a town in south-eastern Bangladesh, located along the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway. It is the administrative center of the Comilla District and a part of the Chittagong Division.
The main town of Comilla is under the Sadar Tana. Comilla Cantonment is one of most important military bases of Bangldesh. It was widely used by the British Indian Army during World War II. There is a war cemetery in Comilla which was established after the World War II. This will remember us the Allied soldiers who died during World War I and II, mostly from Commonwealth states and the United States. There are a number of Japanese soldiers were buried there as well.
Comilla also has an Export Processing Zone (EPZ) at the east end of the town, established on the former site of an airport. It is one of the first growing EPZ in Bangladesh.
BARD is well known for research on rural development is situated at Kotbari, Comilla.

Places of Interest:
Lalmai Mainamati hills carries marks of rich ancient civilization. These hills have a plenty of archaeological sites including Shalvan Vihara, Kutila Mura, Charandra Mura, Rupban Mura, Itakhola Mura, Satera Ratna Mura, Ranir Banglar Pahar, Ananda Bazar Palaces, palaces of Bhoj King, Chandi Mura, etc.
Mainamati Museum is a prominent tourist attraction which carries Archaeological relics including images and metallic utensils discovered from these viharas, muras and palaces.
There are important landmarks of the oldest cantonment of East Benga in Comilla.
There is also a Second World War cemetery located about 3.1 km away from Comilla Cantonment, which was a frontier military base in the fight against the Japanese who had occupied Burma. British Army soldiers killed during the fight with the Japanese Army at the Burma (Myanmar) frontier were buried here. Some Japanese were also buried. This is maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
Pashchimgaon Nawab Bari, the place of only Lady Jaminder Faizunnesa, a poet, educationist and a great donor.
Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development (BARD) is situated in Kotbari is also a place of interests.
Other archaeological heritage and relics include Saptaratna Mandir (Jagannath Mandir), Shah Suja Mosque, Dharmasagar, Chandimata Mandir (on the top of Lalmai Hill of Barura), Chandala Shiva Mandir (Brahmanpara, eighteenth century), Saitshala Jami Mosque (Brahmanpara, 1719), Mazars of Panch Pir (five saints) at Shashidal (Brahmanpara, 1815), Harimangal Math (Brahmanpara, 1822), Ramnagar elongated Math (Brahmanpara, 1705), Saitshala Rammahan Mandir (Brahmanpara, 1805), Hasnabad Math.
There are also some ancient tanks like ‘Dhormo Sagor’, ‘Ranir Dighi’, ‘Nanuar Dighi’, ‘Ujir Dighi’ etc.

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