Bangladesh News

Relocation of the tanneries of Hazaribagh will take ’several more years’ to be completed since the authorities are facing various complications regarding land acquisition, setting up an Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP), and ‘reluctant’ tannery owners, sources in Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) said.
With the delay of ‘at least four years’ in implementing the Tk 175 crore Dhaka Tannery Estate Project (DTEP), the Buriganga river and millions of residents in the western part of the capital are set to face renewed onslaught of toxic emissions in the coming years.

Over 273 tanneries and hundreds of related industries are directly responsible for dumping 7.7 million litres of highly toxic liquid wastes into the river Buriganga every day. Moreover, every day 88 tons of solid wastes, generated by the tanneries, are dumped into the Buriganga, the lifeline of the city.

Leaders of two bargaining associations, 151-member Bangladesh Tanners’ Association (BTA) and 122-member Bangladesh Finished Leather, Leather Goods and Footwear Exporters Association (BFLLFEA) are now demanding Tk 800 crore for the relocation. They are also asking the government for a waiver of loan repayment worth Tk 1,200 crore, which they had borrowed for hide procurement during successive Eid festivals.

DTEP was launched in 2003 and it took the authorities three years to acquire and partially develop 200 acres of land in Savar for the project. The prime minister is pledge-bound to relocate the tanneries which have been causing colossal environmental damage in the vast western part of the city and polluting the Buriganga.

With a hyped up publicity, the prime minister inaugurated the project in 2005. The project period was then extended up to December 2006.

Officials of DTEP have now asked the government to extend the time period from December 2006 to December 2010. They have also asked for an additional amount of Tk 187 crore, which will bring the project cost to Tk 362 crore. The revised project proposal is now lying with the industries ministry.

“We have to acquire another 200 acres of land and also have to re-float an international tender for the Tk 81.75 crore ETP to be set up at the new site,” said Sohrab Hossain, project director of DTEP.

“We are now developing the infrastructure by building roads, drains and other structures needed for the massive relocation job,” Hossain said.

President of BFLFEA Tipu Sultan said the government will have to bear the cost of relocation as agreed upon during the signing of the agreement prior to the launching of the project.

“The government knows very well that we will incur a huge loss during relocation, we have to buy new machinery replacing the old ones used in Hazaribagh,” Sultan said.

“We have asked for soft bank loans for setting up modern tannery units at the new location as the sector has a huge potential since competitors like China and India are fast shutting their tanneries on environmental issues,” he added.

Chairman of BTA, Mohammad Harun Chowdhury blamed bureaucratic red tape for the delay in relocating the tanneries and said the committees formed to oversee the development of the relocation project should know better when the whole process will be completed. The government formed three separate committees to oversee various aspects of the relocation project, some of which have been operating for over 40 years.

“We have given a proposal to the government stating our demand as per the initial agreement for the relocation but we have yet to hear from anyone,” he said.

In the first eleven months of the fiscal year 2005-06 the country earned US$234 million from exports generated from the leather industry. About 75,000 people are employed by the tannery industry in Hazaribagh.