Tanneries: Committee formed to oversee shifting
The Environment Protection Department has formed a committee to monitor progress in shifting of 276 tanneries from Sialkot.
The committee is headed by Sialkot district coordination officer Mujahid Sherdil.
The decision was taken in a meeting between EPD secretary Sajjad Saleem Hotiana and representatives of the Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Sialkot Tanneries Association.
Sialkot Tanneries Association chairman Sheikh Naveed told the meeting that work was underway to construct a boundary wall around the 384 acre land acquired outside the city near Khambranwala, on Wazirabad Road.
An EPD official told The Tribune that the site will have a water treatment plant, a landfill site, a chromium recovery plant and fat extracting units.
He said construction work for these facilities would begin by October 2011.
He said at present tanneries were scattered all over the city because there was no zoning to demarcate industrial and residential areas.
He said in absence of a waste disposal system, the waste from these units was being dumped in open spaces in the city.
“The waste is high in chromium and aromatics that are contaminating groundwater,” he said. “The shifting of tanneries is expected to cost Rs4 billion. It will be completed in three years,” he said.
So far the provincial government has contributed Rs300 million used to purchase land for the new facility. Rs100 million has been raised by Tannery Owners Association. The EPD, the official said, would seek funding from international donors and federal government for the remaining expenses.
The project was suspended in 2002 after negotiations to acquire land for three sites outside the city were unsuccessful. It was revived by the EPD and the SCCI in 2006.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 29th, 2011.
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