Neel-kothi is a historical place and it is located at the heart of the city of Rajmahal. It was built by Englishman on 24 September 1796 to process and storage of Neel (Indigo) used for dying cotton cloth;
During British time, Rajmahal became part of the British program for an indigo cultivation. Those indigo fields are probably being used for growing rice, dals, other cereals and even mustard.
Nil Kothi is situated at the banks of Ganga around 1 kms from the railway station in ‘Kasimbazar’ area. Unfortunately this place is acquired by a local person, so we cannot go inside of this warehouse but still we can go and visit the place and surroundings.
The structure has big wooden gates. There are few places in the building where the similar kind of gates are carved and painted on the wall (they are not actual wooden gates). This probably tells about the place that the warehouse was feared to be attacked and the gates carved on the wall was to mislead the attackers.
As Rajmahal is well at the banks of Ganga so undoubtedly here the fields were quit suitable for the Indigo production. Probably this place was used to store the indigo crops. This place is at the bank of ganga but at such a height that during extreme floods also the water of Ganga has no chance to come even closer to it. So the place was suitable for transporting it to bengal via waterway and was also safe round the year.
Address: Mahajantoli, Nilkothi, Kasim Bazar, Naya Bazar, Rajmahal