The Ministry of Industries is weighing an initial proposal for shifting Bangladesh Insulator and Sanitary Wear Factory from Mirpur to Savar as industrial park cannot be developed on the excess land at its present site for space constraint.
As proposed, the insulator factory may be relocated to the land of Dhaka Leather Co Ltd.
In that case, the proposal says, Dhaka Leather Co Ltd may be shifted to Savar leather industrial park. The park is almost ready now for use by private-sector leather factories that are scheduled to be shifted from the capital's Hazaribagh area.
The proposal has been mooted by the ten-member high-powered committee on finalizing proposals for using excess land of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), preferably by turning it into industrial park.
Formed on instructions from the Prime Minister last month, the committee in its first meeting last week weighed out several options for those SOEs. And one such option was that since Bangladesh Insulator and Sanitary Wear Factory is located within the city, it must be relocated outside.
The insulator-factory land, which encompasses over 33 acres within the city, does not justify its conversion to an industrial park. It may be better disposed of to build houses for government employees. Another option may be that the land could be sold to realtors, which may fetch the exchequer over Tk 2,000 crore at the market price.
Sources at the Industries Ministry and also at the Privatization Commission said Dhaka Leather Co Ltd and Bangladesh Insulator and Sanitary Wear Factory Ltd are two concerns of Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC).
They are on the list of seven SOEs on which the Prime Minister's office has sought finalized proposals to put their excess lands to use through bifurcating those into industrial plots and clustered as new industrial parks.
Out of the seven SOEs, six belong to BCIC and the lone remaining one belongs to the Ministry of Jute and Textiles. The sources said the committee, headed by an Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Industries, has also suggested that 80 percent of lands of some SOEs may be turned into industrial plots, each having three acres in size.
The remaining 20 percent of the lands may be used for internal roads and other infrastructure facilities. In case the BCIC can revive some industries, as it has claimed at the meeting, the corporation may retain 25 percent land and the remainder will be taken out to be converted to industrial plots.
The sources said 15 to 25 industrial plots may be carved out from each of the SOEs to be given to private-sector investors who are failing to set up new industry for want of land at suitable locations.
