Bangladesh Textile Mills Corporation (BTMC) wants to establish a food-court plus resort at the closed site of the Khulna textile mills instead of the PM approved Textile Community or Textile Palli.
Under Public, Private Partnership (PPP), BTMC wants to establish commercial structures and a proposal in this regard has been sent to the ministry of textile and jute.
Responding to the BTMC proposal, the parliamentary committee on textile and jute ministry made recommendation to establish commercial structures in the textile mill area under PPP.
BTMC has said in their proposal that since enough entrepreneurs did not respond, plans were undertaken to transform the textile mill area into a commercial zone.
The textile mill began operation over 26 acres of land in 1931, in 1960 it was named Khulna Textile Mill and was under Adamjee till 1970. In 1972, it was nationalised; on 23 June, 1993, more than 1.5 thousand workers were terminated and the mill shut down by the then BNP government.
After AL came to power in 1999, efforts were taken with approval from the PM to establish a textile community here but with the change of government, the project stalled. Work began once more in 2009 but there were complications due to legal cases.
Settling cases, BTMC called tenders to sell 24 plots for the establishment of a textile community though the response was lukewarm. Only seven tenders were sold though not a single one submitted.
It’s believed that if anyone wants to establish a textile factory, the Department of Environment, DoE, will not give approval. Jute and textile-related parliamentary committee president, Mirza Azam, says: “The area does not have the right environment now for an industrial zone; since industrialization is not possible, we have to look at other ways to make an earning.”
Deputy MD of BTMC, Kazi Feroj Hossain, adds: “Since the spot is at the heart of the city, there are many restrictions.”
The parliamentary committee has suggested developing something useful and we have some great plans, he added.
“After we have decided what we want, a gist will be sent to the PM, highlighting why food court and commercial buildings are rational options instead of factories.”