Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, the EU retailers’ platform, has found structural flaws in six more garment factories in Dhaka and Chittagong and suggested immediate evacuation of the units. Flowing the recommendation, a review committee comprising representatives from the government, the Accord, the Alliance, BUET, BGMEA and BKMEA, has started scrutinising the faults of the units.
The factories are Four Wings Ltd, Terry Pvt Ltd, All Weather Fashion, Elegant and Libas Textile in Dhaka and Mens Apparel in the Chittagong.
After getting the inspection outcome of the Accord teams, the review committee started its work from Wednesday and already visited the units of Four Wings Ltd, Terry Pvt Ltd and All Weather Fashion located in Dhaka, Syed Ahmed, inspector general of DIFE told New Age on Thursday.
He said that the review committee on Wednesday suggested Four Wings Ltd and Terry Pvt Ltd to test the concrete strength of columns and thickness of slab of the buildings within seven days.
The committee on Thursday suggested All Weather Fashion to minimise load immediately and recommended for detailed engineering Analysis within six weeks, Ahmed said.
‘The committee will take further decision after getting the detailed reports and till then production in all the units will continue,’ he said.
Today (Friday) the review committee members would go to Chittagong and will visit the Mens Apparel on Saturday while the other two units located in Dhaka will be inspected on April 7, the DIFE chief said.
The next meeting of the review committee, consisting of two engineers from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, one engineer from Accord and one engineer from Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, a platform of North American retailers, a representative of garment factory owners and the chief inspector of factory and establishment, will be held on April 11, Ahmed added.
Earlier, the Accord had found faults in three garments units located in Dhaka and asked for immediate evaluation.
After the evaluation of review committee, out of three factories, one — Jeans Care Ltd — got approval to resume its operation and two units–– Softex and Fame Sweater –– were closed.
About 5,000 workers have lost their jobs due to closer of Softex and Fame Sweater.
After the Rana Plaza building collapse on April 24 last year that killed more than 1,100 people, mostly garment workers, the retailers and apparel brands of EU including H&M, Marks and Spencer, Mango, Inditex and Primark formed Accord.
The consortium announced its action plan including factory inspections, training and worker empowerment and said that it would inspect over 1,600 factories that manufacture products for its retailers.
Accord has so far inspected structural integrity of 180 garment factories and fire and electrical safety of 224 units after it began inspection on February 18 this year.
-With New Age input
