M Faruque Hossain :
Twelve factories only out of 154 have started processing of raw hides at the Savar Tannery Industrial Estate complying with the government’s directive to relocate their units from the capital’s Hazaribagh, said an official.
Tannery industry leaders earlier said that they would be able to relocate at least 40 to 50 factories after the Eid-ul-Azha, but they failed, claimed Abdul Qaiyum, Project Director of the Industrial Park. He said this while talking to The New Nation on Sunday.
Visiting the site, it was found that few more factories had completed their construction work, but they were not in a position to begin hide processing. Few others built up columns only, while a large number of plots have remained vacant.
A total of 195 plots were allocated to the tannery owners to relocate their factories to the park.
However, the Hazaribagh tannery owners demanded extension of time once again for six months from September so that they could shift their factories to the Savar Tannery Estate.
They argue that the construction of the Central Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) has not yet been completed. The CETP is used for the proper treatment of toxic waste spewed out by tanneries.
But Abdul Qaiyum said that they had already completed 92 per cent construction work of the CETP. It will take two more months only to complete the whole task.
The project was scheduled to be completed by December 2005. The time was extended several times, latest by June 2012. The project has not yet been completed.
The eco-friendly tannery estate has been set up an area of 400 acres of land. The initial project cost was estimated for Tk 1.76-billion entirely funded by the government.
However, the work progress of the Tannery Estate is far from matching the deadline. The work has been going on at a very slow pace. It seems it will take two or three years more to complete the project if the work continues at the present pace.
