Tanners demand time extension to relocate factories to Savar

Country's tanners have demanded extension of the timeline encompassing 2015 to relocate the tanneries from city's Hazaribag to the newly-built Savar hub, industry-insiders said. The government is yet to consider the plea.
Bangladesh Tanners' Association (BTA) feels it may not be possible to go by the set timeframe.   
"It is quite impossible to relocate the tanneries to Savar within the fixed timeframe. There are many issues connected with relocation. So, the relocation process requires the whole year 2015 instead of March 2015," Md Shahin Ahmed, president of Bangladesh Tanners' Association (BTA), told the FE Wednesday.
The government, however, disagreed on this point and rather warned action against the tanners who will fail to begin the relocation of their factories from city's Hazaribag to the Savar tannery hub within the set time, officials said.
"We will cancel the allotment of plots if any tannery owner fails to relocate their establishment from Hazaribagh to Savar by March next year," Industries Minister Amir Hossain Amu said at a special meeting on the progress of shifting tanneries from the city to Savar at his ministry on September 10.
Amir Hossain Amu presided over the meeting. Forest and Environment Minister Anwar Hossain Manju was also present.
The government provided compensation funds for the tannery owners. And there is no scope to manage any soft loan for them. But industries ministry will extend necessary help to the tannery owners to get any bank loan if they need, a high official of the ministry said.
 "The industries ministry will show zero tolerance in case of wasting time in the name of shifting tanneries to Savar," he said.
According to the meeting sources, 149 out of 155 industrial units submitted their layout plan. Layout plans of 147 already have been approved by Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC).
Some 104 units out of the 155 stored their construction materials at the new estate. Of them, only 17 have started their construction work in full swing, it was mentioned in the meeting minutes.
But Mr. Shahin said last Sunday that the relocation work on 80/85 tanneries out of 155 had already started.
The forest and environment minister expressed opinion in the meeting that relocation of tanneries from Hazaribag to Savar should be done in time-bound process.
Otherwise, he feared, export of leather and leather goods to the European countries may be stopped. This will hurt country's leather industry.
"For this, tannery owners have to execute the work within the set timeframe for the sake of their business interests," he was quoted as saying.

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