By Aminul Islam

DHAKA, Aug 22, 2026 (BSS) - An initiative is underway to permanently transfer 113.56 acres of government-owned ‘khas’ land in Kutubdia, Cox's Bazar, to the Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) at a nominal price to modernise the national salt industry.

BSCIC Chairman Benazir Ahmed sent an official letter to the Industries Secretary on August 6, requesting policy recommendations for the Land Ministry.

The proposal aligns with the Iodized Salt Act, 2021 and the National Salt Policy, 2022, aiming to establish a state-of-the-art salt processing, conservation, training, and research centre in the Lemshikhali area of Kutubdia upazila.

There is a plan to build a modern infrastructure combining modern salt processing, conservation, training and research on the 113.56 acres of land.

Currently, under the BSCIC salt industry development programme, technical and overall support is being provided to salt farmers in all upazilas of Cox's Bazar and Banshkhali upazila of Chattogram through 12 salt centres.

The letter said during the BS survey, out of the 113.56 acres of land leased from the government and the 2.90 acres of land purchased by BSCIC itself, a total of 109.57 acres of land, including 106.57 acres, were recorded in the name of BSCIC.

Even then, the lease of the land has to be renewed in every 10 years. Meanwhile, due to non-renewal of leases in fiscal 2024-25 and fiscal 2025-26, it was not possible to allocate land to marginal salt farmers on time. As a result, salt production also decreased.

In addition, since it is khas land, some locals (influential persons) are trying to occupy the land in various ways and several cases are currently pending in various courts to this end.

According to BSCIC, if the land is permanently transferred to the corporation, there will be positive changes in the quality of salt, reduction of post-production losses, increase in storage capacity and marketing system.

At the same time, modern technology-based training will improve the skills of salt farmers and create new employment opportunities.

In this regard, BSCIC Chairman Benazir Ahmed told BSS that salt farmers have faced various challenges such as increased production costs, fluctuations in market prices and storage crisis in the last few years.
 
He said there is no alternative to building modern infrastructure and technology-based salt industry to address these problems.

Currently, practical training is being provided to salt farmers on advanced methods of producing white, granular and mature salt, Benazir Ahmed said.

He said 10,000 skilled salt farmers have already been trained.

In addition, he said, a polythene method has been invented to produce high-quality salt on less land, through which the production of black salt has almost stopped and production has increased by about 40 percent.

The BSCIC chairman said research and demonstration activities have made it possible to expand salt cultivation based on modern technology.
 

“The production costs of trained farmers have decreased and the quality of salt has also improved,” he said.

Benazir said if this historical land, which has been used in salt cultivation since 1961, is transferred to BSCIC, it will be possible to turn Kutubdia into one of the country's most modern salt processing and training centres.

 
Through this, he said, an important contribution can be made to increasing the productivity of the national salt industry and long-term sustainable development.

Joint Secretary of the Industries Ministry Pratap Chandra Biswas said no final decision has been taken yet to send a letter to the Land Ministry regarding the transfer of the land in favour of BSCIC.
 

“Work is underway on the matter. Necessary decisions will be taken in this regard after reviewing the legal aspects,” he said.