Bhiwandi

Bhiwandi is a commercial city in the Thane district of Western Maharashtra. Bhiwandi lies in the Konkan coastal lowland with hills and streams. Bhiwandi is well-known as a major trade center. The city is the major link between Mumbai and the rest of India through Mumbai–Agra highway.

In the early 16th century, Bhiwandi used to have a port on the Kamwadi River in Bunder Mohalla. Waswoods & Spices were traded the most from the port. During the reign of the Moghul Empire, the city of Bhiwandi was known by the name "Islamabad". There is a mosque named Islamabad Masjid & Eidgah. Bhiwandi is having oldest dargah at Diwanshah named as "Qutub e Konkan Sayyad Hussain malik shah Qadri Uruf Diwanshah Baba". each year Urus of Diwanshah Baba is celebrated as a festival and having gathering of 15 days with many cultural programs, naat qawwali, ride for kids and Food stalls.

In the early 20th century, Bhiwandi was a small town and was inhabited mainly by Maharashtrians. Most people worked in agriculture, fishing and weaving. With the introduction of electricity, the hand looms were replaced by power looms. It became a hub of the textile industry in the 1930s. Rais High School and Jr college is the oldest school present in Bhiwandi at old thane road found at 1927 by Sardar Haji Ameer Sahab rais. [1]

With the decline of the textile industry in Mumbai, Bhiwandi became attractive to textile companies due to the convenience for transport and 24-hour power service. The power loom of Bhiwandi is the second-largest power loom after the one in Surat. Bhiwandi produces and transports most of the Power loom for textile industry all over India. But sadly Bhiwandi textile industry is started declining after 2012. Not proper and sudden implantation of new GST laws hit power loom industry very badly. and one of the main thing most of the power loom owners don't know the potential market to sell their products. They never get the good value for their product because they sell the cloths by third parties. third parties are mostly from Gujrat having good contact with mills. Those third parties only do lesioning work and get more than 60 percent of margin of profit. Bhiwandi power loom owner having hope for revolution from new MLA Rais Shaikh (2020). Otherwise power loom industry in Bhiwandi will sink soon. [2]

The increase in Bhiwandi's population is directly or indirectly related to the power loom industry. The place is also known for its large godowns which are considered Asia's largest.[3]

Bhiwandi was initially inhabited by the Kolis and Konkanis who were fishermen that used to live near the Konkan sea coast. Bhiwandi was once a trading town as it had its own port (Bandargah) in Bunder Mohalla. Some of the traditional wooden fishing boats can be seen even today in the Bhiwandi area. The Kolis have their own customs and speak a different dialect of Marathi.[4] Bhiwandi is mostly occupied by migrated people from Uttar Pradesh especially from Azamgarh District of Uttar Pradesh. and they occupied mostly Diwanshah, Azmi Nagar, Ghaibi nagar and Shanti nagar Area of Bhiwandi. [5]

Bhiwandi's total population was about 500,000 in 2001. The bulk of the population forms the workforce for a number of textile and other industries. The first textile loom was set up by Khan Saheb Samad Seth in 1927. He told the local people to sell gold and purchase iron. Today the city of Bhiwandi has about 500,000 power looms, though handlooms are few in number.

The city of Bhiwandi, known for its textile industry, has the largest number of power looms and handlooms in the country.[6][7][8] The majority of the population is employed in the power loom sector.[9]

Bhiwandi developed as an industrial hub for the textile industry in the past, but more recently has hosted other industries and logistics sectors. Bhiwandi is one of Asia’s biggest warehousing hubs. It is a major contributor to the logistic landscape of Mumbai and India due to close proximity to Nhava Seva port of Mumbai and servicing Mumbai, India’s financial capital. Many e-commerce companies like Amazon (company), Flipkart, Reliance Industries, Snapdeal, and FedEx have branches in the city. a warehousing hub dispatching hundreds of thousands of retail and industrial goods to consumers in the financial capital every day. Bhiwandi is the next development region for MMRDA, which has developed other regions such as the Bandra–Kurla Complex, Mumbai Metro, Monorail Project and Eastern Freeway.[10]

After 2012, when Bhiwandi power loom industry started declining suddenly after improper implementation of GST and Demonetization,[11] Bhiwandi's population did not have specific skills to do other jobs. They had fully relied on power loom industry. Some people migrated back to their native places in UP. Others started businesses, like selling whole-sale groceries and general items. Bhiwandi population could not obtain job opportunities in Mumbai and suburbs due to a lack of transportation. Till 2020, Bhiwandi people had three types of businesses – powerloom; lot items of groceries; and small hotels, tea stalls, or food delivery firms. During covid-19 crises, when hotels were facing difficulties, Jedlo – a new rising food delivery supply chain network – got coverage and business.[12]

Bhiwandi has good employment opportunities as having large numbers of warehouses of supply chain companies like Amazon (company), Flipkart and Snapdeal. Various mills are available near Anjurphata and Rehnal village. But most of the companies do not prefer to take Bhiwandi citizens for jobs; they hire Vasai, Kopar, Mumbai, Mumbra, Kalyan and Thane people on job.

In 1800s and 1900s, Bhiwandi was not very education oriented. At the end of 2008, people in Bhiwandi started facing business crises in power loom, and also started thinking about education and jobs. The oldest school of Bhiwandi is S.H.A Rais High School and Jr college founded in 1927 by Sardar Haji Ameer Sahab Rais. It is Urdu medium school situated at old Thana road. having education from 5th standard to 10th standard (Urdu Medium). 11th and 12th (Science, arts, commerce, MCVC) in Urdu/English mediums. BNN College is of the government college present in Bhiwandi. There is one Medical and one Engineering college present in Bhiwandi. Medical college is Sai Homeopathy College at Dugad Phata. Admission process is controlled by DMER. Engineering college is Universal College of Engineering at Kaman Road.[13] After Covid-19 lockdown, most of the institutes started online education. Talha Ask Education did good work for online free education during lockdown running by Er. Talha Shaikh Hanafi Sir.

List of available institutes in Bhiwandi:

Dhobi Talab Stadium (Parshiv ram Tawre Stadium) is one of the famous place of the Bhiwandi. having good play ground and well constructed Pavilions. a big water treatment plant is present in Bhiwandi at Panjrapur having 455 MLD capacity is one of the largest water treatment plant in Asia.[14] Bhiwandi is having national highway passing through it. the city bus proposal was made to start in Bhiwandi but cancelled due to Auto Rikshaw strike. Bhiwandi is having central railway station at Anjur Phata. train station is having link with the central railways and local train of Mumbai too. Bhiwandi Metro Project (Mumbai Metro line 5) is proposed and will be completed till 2025. [15]

Bhiwandi has very inclusive demography with different religions, Eid al-Fitr and Ganesh Chaturthi and various other festivals are celebrated.

According to the 2011 census, the total population of the Bhiwandi-Nizampur Municipal Corporation area is around 1 million.

• B.N.N. College

• Bhiwandi News