Rajshahi Silk Factory has partially resumed production Monday after 15 years of closing creating a high hope among all concerned particularly employees in Rajshahi.Fazley Hossain Badsha, MP, switched on the production before a large number of people including officials and employees of the factory.He expressed the hope that the factory will be fully functional within the next six months.Lawmaker Badsha said Bangladesh Silk Development Board (BSDB) has already allocated Taka 32 crore for boosting silk production and mulberry farming.He said closure of the mill was very much unfortunate for people of the area.Besides, he said many people of the region will be employed here after reopening of the mill fully.Simultaneously, a model factory will be set up at adjacent to Bangladesh Sericulture Research and Training Institute here as an exhibit so that people visiting here from outside could get a real picture of Rajshahi silk.Managing Director of BSDB Anisul Haque Bhuiyan said there are 63 looms in the factory. It’s expected that at least five looms could be made functional within next 45 days.In phases, all the looms could be operational thereby the lost glory of Rajshahi silk could be revived.A total of 287,000 meter silk cloth will be manufactured annually if all 63 looms functional, he added.The factory was commissioned on 15.5 bigha of land in Seroil area in the city in 1961.In 1996, the then Awami League government modernised the factory through adding modern machines at a cost of around Taka 10 crore and restarted it in full swing.But, the then BNP-led four-party alliance government declared the factory lay off in the name of continuous loss on November 30, 2002.
