5 S Alam companies fined

Five companies of S Alam industrial group have been fined Tk 18 million for polluting environment in Chittagong.

Chittagong Bureaubdnews24.com
Published : 9 April 2014, 06:40 PM
Updated : 9 April 2014, 06:40 PM

The companies are S Alam Refined Sugar Industries Limited, S Alam Steels Limited, S Alam Vegetable Oil Mills, S Alam Cold Rolled Steel Mills, and Chemon Ispat Limited.

A media statement from the Department of Environment (DoE) on Wednesday said they had been fined for not renewing their environment certificate and polluting the environment.

DoE Director (Monitoring and Enforcement) Md Alamgir slapped the fine after a hearing in presence of the group’s representatives in Dhaka.
The statement said a DoE team had found evidence of irregularities and environment pollution while inspecting the five factories at Chittagong’s Karnaphuli on Feb 26.
Alamgir said the S Alam sugar mills had been refining sugar for a long time without caring to obtain environment certificate or construct an Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP).
“Several hundred tonnes of non-refined liquid waste had been discharged into the Karnaphuli River, severely polluting the environment,” he said.
The S Alam Steel Mills, S Alam Cold Rolled Steel Mills, and Chemon Ispat had been operating without environment certificate as well.
These factories used a large amount of acid and zinc to manufacture corrugated iron sheets. The DoE got evidence that unrefined waste from these factories were polluting the surrounding land and environment.