Defying all the pressures and many government deadlines, tanneries in the capital's Hazaribagh area are continuing their operation in full swing with regular rawhide supply.

Visiting 10-12 tanneries, including Helal Tannery, Luna Tannery, Milon Tannery, Amin Tannery and LIB Tannery, the news agency has recently found the factories continuing operations normally with rawhide stocks as usual.

Saiful Islam, a technician of Milon Tannery, said, “Our factory is in regular operation. Rawhide supply is now normal. The supply was stalled for 20-22 days.”

Supervisor of Helal Tannery Rashed Uddin also said his factory remains in production.

Chairman of Bangladesh Tanners Association Shaheen Ahmed also admitted that now they are not facing any problem with regard to rawhide supply to Hazaribagh.

“Some 50-60 tanneries, out of 155, will be able to start operation in Savar immediately after Eid-ul-Azha, while the remaining ones will be able to go there early next year,” he told the news agency. The BTA chairman alleged that Central Effluent Treatment Plan (CETP) of the Savar Leather Estate is not fully ready for operation yet. “The government has also realised that relocation is not possible within a short time.”

But Project Director of the Tannery Estate Abdul Quayum claimed that two units of the CETP were fully ready to go into operation since March 29 last. And effluent from at least 30 factories is essential to start operation of the CETP.

He, however, declined to make any comment over the latest progress of the relocation process.

The government initially took the three-year project in 2003 to set up the industrial park to relocate some 205 tanneries from Hazaribagh. It has allotted 155 plots at a 200-acre leather estate among tanners and provided them Tk 250 crore as compensation for shifting their industrial units. Some 21,000 cubic metres of untreated toxic waste are released every day from the Hazaribagh tanneries into the Buriganga river, posing a serious risk to human and animal health.