Infrastructures installed to relocate the Hazaribagh tanneries at the new Tannery Industrial Park in the city’s suburb of Savar have been badly damaged before they are being fully used.Tanners blamed sub-standard and ineffective construction and poor maintenance for the damages and feared that the newly built tannery park would face the same environmental pollutions as Hazaribagh did.They also alleged huge corruption in the development process of the park infrastructures. Officials at Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation, the government agency implementing the project since 2003 costing Tk 1078.71 crore, said that the infrastructures were damaged due to misuse by the tanners, not because of sub-standard constructions.Project director Ziaul Haque said some tanners were even intentionally misusing the drainage system and effluent pipeline to make the project a failure.He said the factories were indiscriminately cutting roads and surface water drains, causing damage to the new infrastructures.He said the tannery owners even did not repair any roads after they were cut carelessly. Bangladesh Tanners Association chairman Shaheen Ahmed said that the BSCIC had built narrow roads, narrow storm water drains and small diameter pipes which would never give service to 155 tanneries while these failed to take pressure of only 55 tanneries’ partial production.The project officials, in the meantime, have suggested renovating many structures including roads, drains, dam and also BSCIC administration building, fire service shed and police camp as these were badly damaged. Shaheen refused such proposals and demanded fresh construction of the facilities instead of renovation immediately and suspected that if the government failed to do so, the situation would be worse than Hazaribagh.During visits in recent times New Age found that pipes and motors from central effluent treatment plant were being replaced as those were damaged.BSCIC officials said they had installed the equipments on a temporary basis to run the CETP on emergency under pressure from different quarters—court, tanners and government high-ups.The infrastructures were damaged while some other vital components of the envisaged environment friendly tannery park were yet to start though the project duration ended finally last month.
