Karwan Bazaar  a market place in the Farm Gate area of Dhaka city. It was originally established by Karwan Sing, a Marwari merchant in the late eighteenth century. In the late nineteen century, the place was developed as a market for selling pottery, crockery and other household products. These products were earlier sold at a market near the Ambar Shah Mosque by the side of the rail line that passed across the city. Later, the market grew in size and was shifted to a neighbouring large and open area, which was at some distance from the rail line. The market got a new name Karwan Bazaar. On the west of it passes an important road of the city, the Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue. Offices of many government agencies, autonomous bodies and big companies are now located in the area surrounding the market. Pan Pacific Hotel Sonargaon, the only five-star hotel of the city (until 2002) is located at one end of the market and by the side of the Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue. Recently, a new international hotel was constructed in the immediate neighbourhood of the market.

At present, there are 1,255 permanent shops in the market and 55 of them are owned by the dhaka city corporation. Also there are hundreds of small temporary shops in and around the market. The market has separate blocks for wholesale trade in fish, vegetables and rice. There is also a permanent shade for rows of shops that sell grocery items and toiletries. Fish, vegetable and other products are imported to the market from all over Bangladesh. Some goods are imported from abroad. Every night hundreds of trucks bring goods to the various shops of the market. Indigenous means of transport like the vans or pushcarts also carry goods to the shops or from them to purchasers' addresses. Traders of this market export vegetables, fish and other agricultural goods not only to different medium and small markets of the Dhaka city or of the suburbs but also to foreign markets, especially in the Middle-East. Most shops in the market are of the sole proprietorship type, while some are partnerships. [Md. Masudur Rahman]