Home ›› 11 Dec 2021 ›› Front
Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation has sought more time to complete the construction work of all the buffer godowns in 13 districts.
BCIC under the Ministry of Industries is implementing the work under the Building of 13 Fertilizer Buffer Godowns project involving TK 545 crore since 2017.
The time extension has been sought as BCIC has so far constructed six godowns in the last four years while the construction work of the remaining seven godowns are still underway.
As contacted, project director AKM Habibullah told The Business Post that the project could not be completed on time as construction work in the project was stopped for a long time due to the outbreak of Covis-19.
Although the construction work is going on now, it won’t be possible to complete the construction work off all these godowns on time. As the construction work was severely hampered because of labour shortage in the wake of Covid-19, a letter has already been sent to the Ministry of Industries, seeking time extension though the project was scheduled to be accomplished in December, this year,’ he further explained.
The godowns are being constructed with a capacity of 10,000 tons of fertilizer but in practical the real storage capacity of already handed over godowns is around 10,000 tons of fertilizer.
The districts where the warehouses are being built are: Panchagarh, Nilphamari, Sherpur, Sunamganj, Kishoreganj, Pabna, Gaibandha, Chapainawabganj, Jashore, Rajbari, Netrakona, Gopalganj and Barishal.
Meanwhile, godowns at Panchagarh, Chapainawabganj, Sherpur, Jessore, Gaibandha and Nilphamari gave been completed and duly handed over to various fertilizer factories.
According to an Industry Ministries source, the government is working to ensure adequate supply of fertilizers across the country to ensure food security. The country currently has an annual demand of at least 25 lakh metric tons of urea fertilizer while 60 to 70 per cent of the total demand is met through exports. The imported fertilizers are supplied to the farmers in remote areas through respective dealers from 25 buffer warehouses of BADC located in different districts of the country.
The source further noted that in addition to 25 lakh metric tons of urea fertilizer, another five million metric tons of fertilizer is being stored to ensure safe storage.
The aim of the project is to increase the stock of fertilizer during the peak season and properly distribute it among the dealers for supply to the farmers quickly. Under the new project, 13 new buffer godowns are being constructed in different districts of the country for proper management, storage and development of fertilizer supply system.
Apart from these, the Ministry of Industries has taken initiative to construct 34 more buffer godowns across the country.
The project will have storage capacity of 10,000 metric tons of fertilizer in each godown being constructed with a pre-fabricated steel structure of 6236 sq ft (three bay), a two-storey office building of 2698 sq ft, a one-storied building of 3289 sq ft two and one floor There will be an electric sub-stations as well along with each godowns.
