Dhaka: Shipping Minister Shahjahan Khan on Wednesday said the tanneries in the city’s Hazaribagh area could not be shifted to Savar in due time for the delay in installation of the central effluent treatment plant (CETP), a key component of the project.

The minister said this at the 29^th meeting of the taskforce committee formed to prevent encroachment and pollution of rivers and maintaining their navigability.

He said it was decided at the meeting to fix July 16, 2016, a new deadline, to shift the Hazaribagh tanneries to Savar. The taskforce members will talk to the Industries Minister in this regard and then the new deadline to move the tanneries will be finalized.

Explaining the reason behind the delay, the minister said 75 percent works for constructing the CETP have already been done and the rest could not be completed in the scheduled time. “So, the members concerned of the committee will seek more time from the government for the relocation of the Hazaribagh tanneries,” he said.

Besides, the committee decided to allocate lands for RAB-10 headquarters and navy headquarters in Keraniganj instead of Buriganga original channel.

About the encroachment of the Baral River in Pabna district, the minister said a team of the taskforce will visit the spot soon.

He said the construction of 20 kilometers walkways on the banks of the rivers in the city has been completed in the last five months.  The construction works of 50 kilometers walkways is underway, he added.

However, around 29 acres of land on the banks of the rivers in the city have been freed from the encroachers in the last five months, Shahjahan Khan said. Besides, 829 illegal establishments on the river banks have been evicted while a total of 218 cases have been filed so far, the minister said.

The meeting also disclosed that the locations for establishing about 6158 pillars for demarcating the boundaries of Turag, Balu, Buriganga and Shitalakkhya rivers have been selected. Already about 2095 pillers have been installed in the selected areas while the work of rest others is underway, Shahjahan said.

Housing and Public Works Minister Engineer Mosharraf Hossain, Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Haque, Water Resources Minister Anisul Islam Mahmud, Land Minister Shamsur Rahman Sharif, State Minister for Power and Energy Nasrul Hamid and the members of the committee concerned were, among others, present at the meeting.