Fund crisis puts tannery relocation in limbo
Avik Sanwar Rahman
Efforts to relocate tanneries from Hazaribagh to Savar under a project the government hopes will help the leather industry grow have snarled up largely because of fund crisis. Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) received Tk 45 crore from the government in the fiscal 2003-4 to build a tannery town on 200 acres in Savar, but sources close to the relocation project said the fund was not adequate. The implementing agency has so far acquired only 17.3 acres as part of the project that will have 195 industrial plots. "We are trying to acquire all lands as early as possible, but it's not easy as we have to buy plots from private owners," BSCIC Public Relations Officer Bahauddin said, adding: "Only land acquisition will cost Tk 41 crore." The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) approved a Tk 176 crore project on August 16 to set up the tannery town with the December 2005 deadline. If the 2003-4 (fiscal year) fund is spent on land acquisition, other components of the project will have to depend on the annual development programme (ADP) budget to be allocated in the fiscal 2004-5, the sources explained. According to the project format, the government will bear 60 percent of the project cost and the rest will come in loans or grants from donors, with the Economic Relations Division (ERD) working to that end. But the ERD seems to have made no progress. "We have not been informed officially and we can't do anything without official instruction," said a high official of the ERD. Bahauddin said the BSCIC did not send the project profile to the ERD for donor funds yet, adding: "I don't know when it will be sent." The BSCIC will lease out land to tannery owners, who will build factories and other facilities, under the project that will also provide all utilities like power, gas and water. The move for tannery relocation came as part of government efforts to cut toxic pollution that is threatening the Buriganga river. All tanneries are private and 95 percent of them are located in Hazaribagh, home to 185 industrial units that have sprouted in an unplanned fashion over the last 50 years. The tanneries, credited with earning up to Tk 1,600 crore in foreign currency a year, discharge untreated toxic effluents into the Buriganga river round the clock, creating a large-scale environmental hazard. The project will build a central treatment plant to treat all toxic liquid waste before it reaches the river. It is also expected to generate over one lakh jobs and attract foreign investment.
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