1,000 BSCIC plots lying vacant in four divisions

Badrul Ahsan Nearly 1,000 industrial plots of BSCIC are lying vacant despite high demand for those among both local and foreign investors due mainly to various bottlenecks prevailing in the industrial estates, officials said. Insufficient gas and power supply, poor infrastructure and anomaly in site selection for setting up industrial park has been cited as the major cause of failure to attract investors, they added. Of the vacant plots, 96 are in the industrial parks in Dhaka division, 205 in Chittagong division, 78 in Rajshahi division and 613 in Khulna division. "The decision of setting up at least one industrial park in every district was wrong as basic requirement for investment is not available everywhere in the country for which some of our industrial plots have long been remaining vacant," a high official of Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) told the FE Sunday. "Besides, the politically biased decision has also forced us to set up industrial parks in such states where success would never come," he added. Some investors at the industrial states said they could not go for full production due to shortage of gas and power. Project manager of a chemicals producing company in the BSCIC industrial park at Tongi, preferring anonymity, said his company got permission for 15mw of power connection for its production. "But we had to remain satisfied with only 5mw. The same thing happened in case of gas supply also. Moreover, no BSCIC official wants to care about our requests for repairing of roads inside the industrial area," he added. "Though Tongi is a prominent industrial hub in Bangladesh, the industrialists here are struggling due to the deplorable condition of the roads," he added. "We have made repeated complaints to the authorities concerned, but got no result so far. Foreign buyers have become frustrated for the poor state of the roads." Kadam Rasul, another investor of Chauddagram BSCIC industrial area said that he is in trouble with the investment as no business environment persists within the area. "I was expecting a congenial business environment before taking allotment in this industrial park, but immediately after my investment I have experienced that no officials of BSCIC cares to hear our woes," he added. "Now I can neither withdraw my investment nor can continue business smoothly," Kadam Rasul added. However, a general manager of planning and development (P&D) division said his office has taken a set of initiatives to remove the bottlenecks and to sell the vacant plots to the investors. "We have made a set of proposals to the government including development of infrastructure both in and outside our industrial parks and to ensure sufficient supply of gas and power to make all such parks fully operational," he told the FE. "Some of our industrial parks were set up ignoring the feasibility study report of our experts. Plots of those estates are now lying idle but we are trying hard to overcome the drawbacks in the areas and also to attract investment by negotiating with different investors," the general manager added. He, however, expressing his hope said that once the proposals are approved, the situation would be changed within a year and thousands of jobs would be created in those industrial parks. According to BSCIC, most of the failed industrial parks had been established in remote corners of the country which are yet to be developed for industrialization. The areas are Rangamati, Khagrachhari, Barisal, Bhola, Swarupkathi and Panchagar.