A mini fire brigade for the Kashimpur-Konabari industrial cluster in Gazipur is going to be established under a joint initiative of Germany and Bangladesh. To this effect, German federal minister for economic cooperation and development Gerd Muller and Bangladesh commerce minister Tofail Ahmed laid the foundation stone of the mini fire brigade in the district on Wednesday. The mini fire brigade would be a rapid response unit for the industrial area, which is being established by the joint initiative of Germany’s Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit and Global Initiative on Disaster Risk Management and Bangladesh’s DBL Group and Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defence. During Wednesday’s ceremony, Muller and Tofail visited DBL Group’s Jinnat Complex at Kashimpur.Following the visit Muller expressed his satisfaction over the compliance standards of the DBL Group’s factory. He urged the government and the factory owners of Bangladesh to adopt this sort of compliance in all readymade garment and textile factories. ‘We know that not every textile company in Bangladesh is already on this level. But I think the government and the textile industry in Bangladesh are on this way, which DBL already has done in standards,’ Muller said. Tofail said after the Rana Plaza building collapse Bangladesh made significant progress in factory compliance in the RMG sector. Requesting the German minister to visit more factories in Bangladesh, Tofail said there were a good number of world-class factories in Bangladesh. Ali Ahmed Khan, director general of Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defence, Syed Ahmed, inspector general of Department of Inspection For Factories and Establishments, Faruque Hassan, vice-president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association and directors of DBL Group were present during the visit. Earlier on March 11 this year, DBL Group and GIZ had signed a cooperation agreement at the Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defence training complex in Dhaka to establish the mini fire brigade. The mini fire brigade unit will be located outside Jinnat Complex of DBL Group. The unit will also serve other factories in the Kashimpur-Konabari industrial cluster. DBL Group is providing land for the construction of the fire brigade.
