CHITTAGONG: Environment Department Tuesday fined a scrap shipyard in Sitakunda upazila Tk 15 lakh on charge of cutting ships under risky environment and causing environmental pollution.

Earlier, the Enforcement Division of the Environment Department, led by its Director Mohammad Munir Chowdhury, conducted a drive in M/S Rahim Steel Company.

Apart from the fine, the owner of the ship-breaking yard was directed to submit its environment management plan soon, Munir Chowdhury said.

Five workers were killed and seven others injured in an oil tanker explosion at the ship-breaking yard on December 26, 2009.

Earlier on Sunday, Environment Department fined Sultana Ship Breaking Yard in Sitakunda upazila Tk 7 lakh on the same charge.

According to the statistics of Young Power in Social Action (YPSA), a private development organization that works on the ship breaking yard workers, around 1,200 workers were killed and 6,500 other injured at the scrap shipyards of Sitakunda over the last 27 years from 1982.

BDST: 1920 HRS, AUG 29, 2010