The government will cancel allotment of industrial plots at Savar Tannery Park if anyone fails to relocate their factories within the stipulated time.
The government has taken such strict stance as some buyers of the European countries have set time limit that they would not import leather products from environmentally non-complaint countries.
"If any company fails to relocate their factories within the timeframe we will cancel their allotment," Amir Hossain Amu, Industries Minister told a meeting last week.
The tanners earlier signed an agreement with the ministry that they would complete the relocation by December 2014.
But factory owners who have not started shifting their plants yet claimed that they did not get their plant designs approved from the BSCIC and building code has not been finalised.
Sources said large tanners have already started relocating from the city's Hazaribagh to Savar Tannery Estate.
According to the BSCIC, around 100 tanneries submitted designs of their buildings till Tuesday last though 155 tanneries were allotted 205 plots in the estate.
The government is implementing a revised project on relocation of leather industry to Dhaka Tannery Estate at a cost of Tk 10.78 billion of which Tk 2.50 billion has been earmarked as grant for shifting of the tanneries.
Owing to the long delay, the tannery relocation cost has now doubled to Tk 10.79 billion from the first revised project proposal of Tk 5.5 billion in October 2007.
The government initiated the tannery relocation in 2003 but deviated from its original plan and imposed the relocation expenses on the owners under a loan agreement for over 15 years, after installation of CETP.
At present, there are about 185 tanneries in the city's Hazaribagh area producing about 18.0 million cubic meters of processed hide.
Besides, nearly 21,600 cubic meters liquid wastages including chromium, sulphur, ammonia, salt and other poisonous metals are also being discharged everyday from these tanneries which have created serious pollution in the river Buriganga and its adjoining areas.
The annual export turnover from the leather sector, the second largest sector after RMG, is likely to reach $4 to $5 billion from its present level of earnings of $1 billion after relocation to an environmentally-compliant industrial estate.
