Four others allowed time to rectify
A total of eight garment units have so far been shut on safety grounds while another four have been given time to rectify their buildings, said a leader of
Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association.
After the collapse of Rana Plaza at Savar on April 24, which killed more than 1,130 people—most of them garment workers—the government and the BGMEA have started to find out risky building that houses RMG units.
A core committee comprising of experts of BUET and RAJUK and a technical team of BGMEA has already been formed.
BGMEA vice-president Shahidullah Azim told New Age that the technical team of BUET and BGMEA so far inspected about 20 factories in Dhaka region of which eight factories were found risky.
‘As per the recommendation of experts, the eight factories have already been shut and the owners have been asked to shift their units to other buildings as the existing buildings are vulnerable,’ he said.
The closed factories are Nassa Fashions Ltd, Bay Pacific Enterprise Ltd, New World Apparels Ltd, Flower Fashions Ltd, SAS Fashion Wear Ltd, HB Garments Ltd, Topkind Apparel Ltd and SA Rahman Sweater Factory.
BGMEA vice-president said that the experts of BUET also identified less risky four factory buildings and gave them corrective action plans to rectify by November 5.
The four factories are World Victory Garments Ltd. AG’s Apparels Ltd, Fashions Ltd and Trade Sweater Factory Ltd.
‘They have to comply with the corrective action plan by the deadline; otherwise they have to face shutdown,’ Shahidullah said.
After the Savar tragedy, the government formed a committee, headed by Jute and Textiles Minister Abdul Latif Siddiqui, and its members are supposed to physically visit all the garment factories across the country.
Another committee has been formed to inspect the structural design and loading capacity of RMG factories across the country, headed by the chairman of RAJUK and having representatives from BGMEA, Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association and BUET.
But there is no effective coordination among the two committees as there is a difference between the statistics of government committee and the BGMEA over the list of closed factories.
Earlier, the textile and jute minister Abdul Latif Siddique had told New Age that the cabinet committee on readymade garment industry had shut 16 apparel factories in Dhaka but some of them started their production from Thursday as the factory owners collected risk-free certificates from the expert engineers who inspected the buildings.
On May 9, labour Ministry secretary Mikail Shipar had said that 10 out of 16 owners had collected the certificates from the relevant authorities who inspected the factory buildings and the government has given them permission to resume their production.
The BGMEA vice-president, however, said that he was not aware about the activities of ministry but there were no units in Dhaka region which remained closed beyond the eight factories.
-With New Age input
