Mirpur weavers to move to new site

Tk 2.58b project awaits approval this week

Mehdi Musharraf Bhuiyan | Published: September 15, 2018 22:54:35

Thousands of weavers based in Mirpur Benarasi Palli will shift to a new site, some 70 kilometres off the densest Dhaka city.
The move is a part of reviving the glory of the handloom industry and also freeing up space in the metropolis.
As planned, the weavers would find a new home at a new hub based in greater Faridpur region.
Officials said the new hub for the weavers outside the city would breathe new life into the sector.
To this end, the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council is set to approve a Tk 2.58-billion project this week.
A total of 120 acres of land will be acquired across Madaripur and Shariatpur districts to establish a new 'Tant Palli' on the bank of the Padma.
Bangladesh Handloom Board under textiles and jute ministry will implement the scheme.
Once completed, available documents estimate, handloom garment production in the country will grow by above 6 per cent and create jobs for almost 25,000 people.
"The project is aimed at rehabilitating the weavers based in Mirpur and other parts of greater Dhaka," said Bangladesh Handloom Board chairman M Rafiqul Islam.
"The move would generate employment for weavers alongside boosting the overall production capacity of the handloom industry in the country," he added.
Insiders said Dhaka's weavers are currently carrying out their business in a very 'dispersed manner'.
Most of them are in abject poverty living in crowded and unhygienic conditions, they observed.
In recent years, according to the insiders, their activities have been threatened also by various infrastructure schemes in the adjacent areas.
"Around 3,000 weavers were once at Mirpur Benarasi Palli, but many have moved for job loss and eviction," said Md Ayub Ali, chief of planning of the board.
"A densely populated area like Mirpur is not an ideal spot for the growth of a handloom hub," he argued.
During a visit to the handloom board in October 2014, the prime minister gave a directive to relocate the weaver community outside Dhaka.
Just a month later, the National Economic Council decided to move them to an open space outside the city.
"A full-fledged project has been designed based on a feasibility study and our previous experience of setting up such a hub at Iswardi," Mr Islam said.
The project will be done in two phases-the first part will start this year and is due for completion by 2021.
The first phase includes land acquisition and development, design and layout of necessary infrastructure and a boundary wall around the location.
The second part will be dedicated to the infrastructural development across the hub.
"Acquiring 120 acres aside, a total of 1,261,728 cubic metres of land development work will be required as part of implementing the first phase," Mr Ali said.
The site would accommodate 8,064 new handlooms while it would have an annual production capacity of around 43.1 million metres, the project documents suggest.
Mr Islam said, "The site would be close to the Padma Bridge. So, it'd be easy to market and ship handloom products coming from the hub across the country."
Once famous globally for its exquisite quality, the local handloom industry has been through hard times for decades for the advent of mechanised clothing.
The industry, however, is still a major source of income for villagers after agriculture.
According to official figures, a total of 505,556 handlooms now survive across the country.
The total production capacity of the local handloom industry is around 687 million metres.
Its annual value addition to economy is estimated at Tk 12.28 billion, the government data shows.
Back in fiscal year 2017-18, the country earned around $800 million by exporting handloom garments-around 2.5 per cent of the total export earnings.
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