Tannery owners pay first instalment for Savar plots

Tannery owners Tuesday paid the Industries Ministry the first instalment of money for 164 plots in tannery industrial cities of Savar and Keraniganj, reports bdnews24.com.

Industries Adviser Geeteara Safiya Choudhury expressed the hope that the tannery industry owners would be able to open Savar Tannery Industrial City before the tenure of the present caretaker government (CG) ends.

The businessmen handed over a cheque to Geeteara at a meeting at the ministry. However, neither the adviser nor the businessmen could say how much money was deposited.

"We want to complete the work in one and a half years. As many women work in the industry I have special interest to implement it," Geeteara said.

The adviser asked the industry owners to deposit the money for remaining 31 plots by June 30.

The businessmen have deposited 10 per cent of the prices of plots through cheques and have to deposit the rest in nine instalments in as many years.

"The tannery industry is being shifted to Savar from Hazaribagh because of environmental pollution. But the problem has not yet been solved," Bangladesh Finished Leather, Leather Goods and Footwear Exporters Association president Tipu Sultan told reporters.

"We have to pay 60 per cent of relocation costs and the government will bear the rest," he said.

The Tannery Industrial City was approved at an ECNEC meeting on August 18, 2003. Although the work of the main project was to be completed by the end of June, the work of setting up a common effluent treatment plant (CETP) has not yet been started.