Engineers of 26 US retailers and brands under the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety have so far closed down one factory in Chittagong, a year after the Rana Plaza collapse killed 1,138 people. The platform has suggested the review panel close down five more garment factories.
The Alliance that started with seven teams on March 12 inspected 508 out of the 626 factories in Dhaka and Chittagong. Inspections would be complete by July 10. Alliance and Accord members have 300 common factories to buy clothes from. They have agreed to avoid repetition. The inspection reports, mainly on fire, electrical and structural integrity, found a lack of fire alarms and a need for better enclosure and maintenance of electrical wiring.
An inspection found several factories didn’t have fire doors and sprinkler systems. There was also evidence of cracking and a need for beam-column joint repair in a few places. Sometimes there was a wide deviation between the approved drawings and actual construction. One garment factory was overloaded with fabrics on several floors.
One suggestion is that at least one individual, the factory load manager, should be present at the factory full-time and trained in calculating operational load characteristics.
www.bangladeshworkersafety.org
