In a move that is expected to give a fillip to the fledgling leather sector of Bangladesh, which is faced with a host of challenges, the Government is, reportedly, planning to come up with a new leather industrial park.
This was maintained in a media report, which cited sources within the Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) and industry insiders, as per whom, keeping with the plan to set up a full-fledged tannery city, the Government is planning to set up a tannery park next to BSCIC Tannery Industrial Estate at Hemayetpur in Savar.
Meanwhile, speaking to the media, Rashedur Rahman, BSCIC Deputy General Manager (Planning), reportedly, maintained that things that were not included in the previous tannery industrial estate project would be linked to the new industrial park even as he claimed that plans have been made to set up research and laboratory, accommodation and training facilities for the workers in the new project.
The new leather city will have a shopping mall and a commercial complex too, reportedly, said the BSCIC DGM (Planning) while sources within the BSCIC, reportedly, underlined that tanneries have been shifted from Hazaribagh to Hemayetpur, but there is no provision for accommodation, training and research centre for the workers while the backward and forward linkage industries associated with the leather industry have not found any place there, apart from the fact that there is no fire station with the tannery industrial park even as waste is kept in open space and the environment is being polluted due to lack of waste management.
The proposed BSCIC leather industrial park will be set up on another 200 acres of land next to the tannery industrial city on the banks of Dhaleshwari River — around 200 industrial plants will be set up on 270 acres of land, a modern CETP will be set up on about 21 acres of land and a 50 MW power plant will be set up on six acres of land — maintained the report, adding there will be a modern CETP, a solid waste management system, a dumping yard along with a power plant, two electrical substations, a gas station and a cold storage facility apart from police station, playground, water treatment plant, etc.
