The land route closed, a 400-worker hosiery factory shut, and the owner went under

This owner from Sadhupara in Pabna town borrowed from a bank to build a large hosiery factory employing roughly 400 people, earning well on exports. When overland exports to India were stopped he could not sell his output, was eventually forced to close, and went bankrupt under his debts, with all 400 workers losing their jobs. The district's roughly 3,000 hosiery units once employed more than a hundred thousand people and about 65 percent of them are now jobless; 65 percent of the country's hosiery exports used to move through Pabna, and the association president says owners now quarrel with creditors daily. The mechanics are plain: the land route took two to three days with payment inside five, carrying more than a hundred trucks a week and bringing in USD 150,000-200,000, while the river route through Chattogram port takes 20-25 days with payment after 30-35, and only seven or eight trucks a week now move. At another factory the workforce has fallen from about 500 to 200.