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BTMC signs deals with two firms, 15 more in the pipeline

Move to reopen state-run mills under PPP arrangement


Thursday, 15 August 2019


Munima Sultana
The government has taken an initiative to reopen the closed state-owned textile mills in the country under the public-private partnership (PPP) modality in a bid to make them profitable.
As part of the move, the Bangladesh Textile Mills Corporation (BTMC) has already signed agreements with two local firms for operating as many textile mills at Tongi and Demra, sources said.
Fifteen more such textile mills are also in the pipeline, they added.
"The initiative is aimed at bringing the closed textile mills into the mainstream economy," said Director General of PPP Authority M Abul Bashar.
According to the first two agreements, Tanjina Fashion Limited will run Ahmed Bewani Textile Mill in Demra and Orion Consortium will operate the Quaderia Textile Mill at Tongi for 30 years, including the construction period.
The contracts can be renewed for another 10 years, subject to satisfactory performance, officials said.
Quaderia Textile Mills Limited, spanning over 21.5 acres of land, is located beside Dhaka-Mymensingh highway while Ahmed Bewani Textile Mill, spanning over 32.41 acres of land, stands close to Dhaka-Chittagong highway.
Both the concessionaires will pay Tk 100 million to the contracting authority as upfront premium and Tk 24 million per annum as first annual contract fee. Besides, they paid Tk 40 million in bid security and performance each.
Project Director Kazi Feroz Hossain said the BTMC was now taking preparations to restart 15 more textile mills under the PPP mode, which were approved by the cabinet committee on economic affairs.
Presently, the BTMC has a total of 23 textile mills - all are said to be sick.
The BTMC has taken the move mainly to woo foreign investment, but no foreign firms approached the BTMC for the first two PPP projects of the state-run corporation, sources said.
Feroz Hossain, also the deputy general manager of BTMC, however, expressed the hope that the next PPP projects might attract foreign investment as necessary campaign has been carried out in this regard.
BTMC, which is under the Ministry of Textile and Jute, started its journey in 1972 with 74 mills under its control. But most of the mills were denationalised between 1997 and 2010.
Its 23 textile mills are located at several prime zones in the country.
The PPP model followed in the BTMC textile mill projects is called design-build-finance-operate-maintenance and transfer (DBFOMT). The construction period is fixed -- 36 months from the appointed date.
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