Hinganghat Town
This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. |
Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.
Hinganghat Town
Head-quarters of the tahsil oi the same name, Wardha District, Central Provinces, situated in 20° 34' N. and 78° 51^ E., on the Wunna river, and on the Wardha-Warora branch line of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, 21 miles from Wardha town and 492 from Bombay. Population (1901), 12,662. An outbreak of plague in 1898 has not affected its prosperity. The name means the ghat or crossing of the hingan-ixQ.e?> {Batatiiies aegyptiaca). Old Hinganghat was a straggling ill-arranged town, liable to be flooded by the Wunna river during the monsoon. The new town, a quarter of a mile distant from the old one, is laid out in two sets of three broad streets at right angles to each other, and furnished with rows of trees like boulevards.
Hinganghat was created a municipality in 1867. The receipts and expenditure during the decade ending 1900 averaged Rs. 35,000. By 1903-4 the income had largely expanded, and amounted to Rs. 70,000, octroi being the principal head of receipt. The town is a leading centre of the cotton-trade. The Hinganghat Mill Company, established in 1881, has a capital of 3-5 lakhs and 30,888 spindles. Another mill, with nearly 15,000 spindles and 160 looms, which began work in 1900, is the sole property of a resident of Hinganghat, who has invested 13 lakhs in it.
There are also 10 cotton-ginning factories, and 4 pressing factories, containing 265 gins and 2 presses, with an aggregate capital of about 7 lakhs. The town is supplied with water from the Wunna river. A filtration well has been sunk in the bed of the river at a distance of about two miles, from which water is pumped into an elevated reservoir and distributed to the urban area in pipes. The works were opened in 1883, the capital expenditure being 1-36 lakhs, and the annual maintenance charges Rs. 8,000. Hinganghat has a high school and a dispensary, and a town hall has recently been built. Other large public improvements likely to be completed in the im- mediate future are the improvement and extension of the water-works and the construction of a market.
