The failure in completing the plastic industrial park in the last eight years has escalated the project cost by almost four times to Tk 5.09 billion, and affected relocation of factories from the capital city, insiders said on Thursday.
The project was taken to relocate the highly-flammable factories that grew in an unplanned manner mainly in the old part of Dhaka city to Sirajdikhan area beside the Dhaka-Mawa expressway to Padma Bridge.
The plastic industry has been growing with rising demand for the country's plastic products in the domestic and international markets.
According to the Ministry of Industries (MoI), the "Setting up of BSCIC plastic industrial park project" got revised for the 3rd time with time and cost escalations.
"We applied for the revision a few months back as some works still remained unfinished," said a senior official at the MoI. "As we got the revision with increased funds and extended time, we hope the project will be completed within the new deadline."
He said the project was delayed due to the time-consuming land acquisition process.
The local industry has the potential to become a major global player. According to a new study by Grand View Research, the global plastic market is expected to reach US$ 721.14 billion by 2025.
The total market size of local plastic products at home and abroad is about $2.99 billion - 83.4 per cent in the domestic market and the remaining 16.6 per cent in the global market.
The manufacturers say the per capita consumption of plastic products in Bangladesh is 5-7 kg whereas the global average is around 50 kg.
At its last meeting early this month, the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) endorsed the 3rd revision of the plastic industrial park project.
It first approved the project in 2015 with an initial estimated cost of Tk 1.33 billion and expected completion period by June 2018.
However, the BSCIC failed as the ECNEC revised it for the first time, raising the cost to Tk 3.97 billion. When it failed again, the government revised the project for the second time, increasing the cost to Tk 4.28 billion and extending the completion deadline to June 2022.
The BSCIC failed again and the ECNEC revised the project for the third time.
BSCIC officials said the project will create an environment-friendly production hub of plastic items, and as many as 370 plots at the park will generate 18,000 new jobs.
According to the MoI, there are 5,030 plastic factories in the country, most of which are private. Of these, 50 large, 1,480 medium and 3,030 are small ones.
Around 80 per cent of the total plastic factories are located in the capital while 90 per cent of the small ones are located in old Dhaka.
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