The economic activities centered on construction works of upcoming Rooppur Nuclear Power Project, located at Ishwardi in Pabna, have initiated mentionable change in the area.
The power plant is the biggest project according to the amount of money invested in it and 33,000 officers and labors are working in the project, among which 400 are Russian-citizen.
To meet up the demand of Russian’s purchasing necessities, already a big marketplace has been propped up in front of Green City gate no.1 at Natunhat intersection in Rooppur.
Besides local products, Russian-made products are also available in this market. In addition to Bengali and English, Russian language is also visible on the signboard of many of the shops here. Even, to make the transaction process easier, the Bangladeshi vendors have adopted this language as well as Russian people staying here also learned Bengali. Overall, Ruupur area has become a mini Russia, which is synonymous in Bengali as ‘Russpalli.’
From visiting the area, it has been seen that there’re a few market built in front of Green City No.1 gate. Owner of Khan Super Market, Md Belal told the Bangladesh Pratidin, “Among the Russian products, the mostly sold items are food items, which include fish, meat, jelly and perfumes. To make the business more fruitful, the Bangladeshi vendors and Russian nationals staying here have adopted each other’s languages. Among the visitors, Russian people are majority.
The shop owner said the business of the vendors continues all day long; however the Russians visit these markets in the time after afternoon. In addition to the presence of shops, there’re few restaurants in Natunhat intersection. Besides regular visit in these restaurants, they arrange various programs and birthday parties here.
Proprietor of ‘Q-Bitro Plus’ Restaurant, Md Rahul said, “We’ve introduced the restaurant to serve especially the Russians. Various Russian foods are available here and they eat mostly Calamari, Momo, Sushi, rice of various types and Red Salami Eggs. They like to party and we get maximum customers on holidays like Friday and Saturday.
A Russian national told The Bangladesh Pratidin he liked Bangladesh very much, especially its food items.
He said he would miss the country after returning home upon completion of the project.
Some ice cream and juice shops are also visible there. One of these vendors informed that Russians are very much fond of ice cream as around 100 units of ice creams are sold each day.
Adjacent to the ice cream shops, there was a temporary vegetable shop. The seller Russel said, “Russians like to eat vegetables, especially fresh tomatoes. Earlier, they didn’t haggling prices while buying commodities; however, now they seemed to be very concern about the product price.”
The local people said as various employment opportunities have been created centered around Rooppur projects, the shop owners are earning their livelihood and has become solvent to run their families.
@The artcile published on print and online versions of The Bangladesh Pratidin on October 23, 2022 and rewritten in English by Lutful Hoque
