DASKA - The Environment Protection Department has formed a committee to monitor progress in shifting of 276 tanneries from Sialkot. Work was underway to construct a boundary wall around the 384 acre land acquired outside the city near Khambranwala, on Wazirabad Road in Sambrial. In absence of a waste disposal system, the waste from these units was being dumped in open spaces in the city. Present tanneries were scattered all over the city because there was no zoning to demarcate industrial and residential areas. The relocation of tanneries is expected to cost Rs4 billion. It will be completed in three years. The provincial government has contributed Rs300 million used to purchase land for the new facility. Rs100 million has been raised by Tannery Owners Association. The site will have a water treatment plant, a landfill site, a chromium recovery plant and fat extracting units. The committee is headed by Sialkot district coordination officer Mujahid Sherdil. The project was suspended in 2002 after negotiations to acquire land for three sites outside the city were unsuccessful. It was revived by the EPD and the SCCI in 2006. According to an estimate 90 million meter leather is annually manufactured while chemical consumption is 65,000 tons for leather processing in tanneries in Pakistan whereas 20 to 25 percent chemicals are used and absorbed but 75 to 80 percent unused are liberated in industrial effluent. Similarly, 40,000 ton toxic chemical are used in tanneries industries of which 9,600 tons chemicals are consumed by the tanning sector of Sialkot. Over 264 small and medium sized tanneries have been set up in Sialkot city and its out skirts and more units are expected to be established in the near future, as a result of which, leather manufacturing has merged as a major industry in Sialkot district.