Explain the reasons why most of the Jute industries in India are located in West Bengal.
Generated by claude-sonnet-4-6 · 2026-06-15 07:05 · grounding rag
Model Answer
Reasons for concentration of Jute Industries in West Bengal (along the Hugli river):
- Proximity to raw material: West Bengal is close to the major jute-producing areas of the Ganga-Brahmaputra delta.
- Cheap water transport: The Hugli river provides inexpensive water transport for movement of raw jute to the mills.
- Good transport network: A well-developed network of railways, roadways and waterways supports movement of raw material.
- Abundant water supply: Large quantities of water needed for processing raw jute are easily available from the Hugli river.
- Cheap labour: Abundant cheap labour is available from West Bengal and adjoining states of Bihar, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh.
- Banking, insurance and port facilities: Kolkata, as a large urban centre, provides banking, insurance and port facilities for export of jute goods.
Source: Jute Textiles, Chapter 6
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Explanation
The examiner expects 5–6 distinct locational factors, each as a labelled point with a brief explanation. Avoid writing in essay form. Every point here maps directly to the textbook passage on the Hugli basin — do not add outside information. The first jute mill at Rishra (1855) is a useful fact for context but is not a "reason," so it is omitted from the main points to stay within word limits.