Bihar Assembly Elections 2025 | Chanpatia Startup Zone: What happened to Bihar’s model for returning migrants

In this episode of DH Dateline, we travel to Bihar’s West Champaran district ahead of the Bihar Elections 2025. Once hailed as a model for rehabilitating returning migrant workers during the COVID-19 lockdown, the Chanpatia Startup Zone symbolised Bihar’s development promise.

Five years later, that promise is faltering — with nearly half of the units shut or struggling to survive. What happened to Bihar’s model for returning migrants, and what does Chanpatia’s decline reveal about the state’s growth narrative? DH’s Ashish Pandey finds out.