Revised printing park project to be placed at Ecnec meeting Tuesday

The revised industrial printing park project will be placed at the meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) on Tuesday, according to planning commission sources.

The Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (Bscic) will implement the project on 100 acres of land at Kharshur in Sirajdikhan upazila of Munshiganj.

In the 2016 initial plan, the project area was 42 acres at Boro Borta area by the Dhaka-Mawa highway of Munshiganj, as the cost was Tk138.70 crore.

According to the revised project, the cost has been raised to Tk265.50 crore, as the deadline has been extended by two years to 2024.

Bscic officials said they faced land acquisition hiccups for five years in the initial project location, and then shifted to the new site with a bigger plan.   

"The new site offers khas land at a comparatively cheap rate. Since there are no neighbourhoods on the demarcated site now, there will be no acquisition issue this time," Md Nizam Uddin, director of Bscic's printing park project, told The Business Standard.

In the same area, Bscic is also setting up a plastic industrial city to relocate scattered plastic making units at one place.   
Nizam Uddin said since the project site will expand, the number of plots will more than double. Initially, the number of plots is expected to be 299.

Now there are more than 4,500 printing presses in Dhaka alone, while the industry employs 4 lakh people across Bangladesh.

According to the authorities, the industrial park will generate employment for more than 2 lakh people.