No gas connection, costs 30 percent higher, and a 21,000-kg-a-month factory closed

Talora port in Dupchanchia, Bogura, has made aluminium pots, pans, buckets and bowls since 1952. This factory averaged 21,000 kg of utensils a month with more than 100 workers until losses closed it around 2015. The owner's explanation is a single input: after gas reached Bogura town some owners built gas-fired plants, but Talora was never given a gas connection, leaving his production costs more than 30 percent higher for the same goods, while furnace oil went from 7 taka a litre a decade earlier to 100. Another owner applied repeatedly for a connection, never got one, and also shut at a loss. Demand was shifting to plastic, melamine and ceramic at the same time. About 40 factories closed here in the 22 years after 2000; of more than 50 that once ran, including 25 large ones, one large and 8-10 small units survive.