The Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (Bida) has identified 814 more factories as risky under a countrywide initiative as the government looks to prevent avoidable fire incidents and other disasters.

These factories lack necessary fire safety measures and have vulnerable working conditions.

In the first phase, the state-run investment promotion agency named 106 factories in Dhaka, Chattogram, Narayanganj, and Gazipur as risky. The inspection ran between November 2021 and March 2022.

The move comes after more than 50 people died in a fire at the factory of Hashem Foods Ltd in July 2021. This prompted the Prime Minister's Office to form a 24-member national committee, headed by Salman F Rahman, private industry and investment adviser to the prime minister.

In the second phase, 108 teams consisting of officials of the departments of environment, fire service, the district administration, the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE), and the Bida examined the safety standards and working conditions of 5,001 factories in all 64 districts between March and June last year.

The hosiery industry has been detected as the most vulnerable, with 35 factories out of the 62 inspected found to be highly vulnerable.

"The factories need to comply with fire safety and environmental standards immediately in order to protect their workers from any health hazards," said Abhijit Chowdhury, the national coordinator of the factory inspection initiative.

The inspectors were moderately dissatisfied with 2006 factories because of their lower-than-expected safety standards, he said.

The Bida already handed over the final report on the second phase to the national committee. A presentation on the final report was also made before the national committee at a meeting organised by the home affairs ministry on May 29.

The inspectors noticed faults in structural designs, fire safety measures, and power connection lines in the factories, which pose a risk to the workers, said Chowdhury, also an executive member of the Bida.

The national committee has instructed the inspection initiative to send letters to the owners of the vulnerable factories with a corrective action plan (CAP) within three months. The moderately vulnerable factories will be given a six-month CAP.

The initiative will hold a meeting tomorrow to send letters. The DIFE will start sending the letters by the end of June, he said.

The inspection initiative has recommended setting up separate zones for the hosiery industry to rehabilitate the vulnerable factories.

"Besides, we have suggested regular inspections of the factories and legal actions if any negligence is found," the Bida senior official said.

Under the third phase, the 58 teams will look at 2,900 labour-intensive heavy industries in 16 districts. The inspection is expected to start in July.