The government will not allow tanners to bring rawhide and process wet blue skin at Hazaribagh after January 31.
It has also extended the deadline until March 31, 2017 for relocation of the tanneries from the city's Hazaribagh area to Savar in Dhaka.
However, crushed and finished leathers' processing could continue until March 31.
The decision was taken at a meeting between the senior secretary of the ministry of industries (MoI) and sector representatives on Sunday as the penalised tanners are yet to relocate their units completely from the present site to Savar.
After the meeting with the tanners, senior secretary of the ministry of industries (MoI) Md Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told the media that from April the government will cut off utility lines if any tanner fails to relocate their units to Savar from Hazaribagh.
A total of 154 tanners have got plots at Savar Leather Industrial Park. Out of them, only 37 started processing wet blue skin there. About 102 tanners have submitted their demand notes while 86 tannery units are now under construction.
Out of four, work of two modules of central effluent treatment plant (CETP) will be completed within next one month, according to the MoI.
The government has formed a committee comprising representatives from Department of Environment, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) and leather sector to look into waste management and environmental issues properly at Savar.
The process of relocating the tanneries from Hazaribagh to Savar has been pending since 2001 when the High Court (HC) ordered relocation of the tanneries that are mainly responsible for polluting the Buriganga.
In 2009, the court set February 24, 2010 deadline for the tanners to shift out of the city heart to Savar. The deadline was also extended several times at the government's behest.
The government tried repeatedly to relocate the tanneries from the area, but failed. The latest deadline expired on December 31, 2016.
On June 16, 2016 the HC fined the tanners Tk 50,000 per day for failing to relocate their units to the industrial park in Savar. The leather processing units at Hazaribagh have long been polluting the Buriganga River.
The Supreme Court on July 18, 2016 lowered the daily penalty to Tk 10,000 from an initial amount of Tk 50,000.
An Appellate Division bench of the SC, led by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, gave the order, commuting the penalty.
The SC asked each of the 154 tanneries to pay the amount in penalty for polluting the environment until they move their units to new hub in Savar area from Hazaribagh.
An industrial estate has been set up in Savar specifically to host the tanneries that have been directed to relocate. The government also disbursed Tk 2.5 billion (Tk 250 crore) as compensation to the tanners, and 155 plots were allocated to them on the site at Harindhara in Savar.
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