"An expert delegation from Mecon will be arriving in Dhaka within a week for detailed discussions on the proposed feasibility study," KAM Kamaluddin, chairman of the Bangladesh Steel and Engineering Corporation (BSEC), told PTI here on Monday, adding efforts would be made to re-start the unit by modernising it under a joint venture.

The time-frame for submission of the feasibility report by Mecon would be decided through mutual discussions, he said.

Sources in the Chittagong steel mills said Mecon is expected to begin the feasibility study immediately after the mills' 1,800 employees and workers are paid off their dues.

They said the government, in a letter to the management of the mill on May 5, had directed it to make preparations to pay dues, amountingto taka 88 crore by May 31, adding the amount will be sent to the mill authorities soon.

The pay-off decision was finalised at a high-level meeting of the government on may five and the district administration had been asked to execute it.

The government had decided to get rid of the 1800 employees and workers of the mill under a pay-off policy, the sources said. Continuous losses since 1991 had led to closing down of Chittagong steel mills, which had accumulated burden of over Rs 500 crore taka as loans, three months back, sources said.

It had been incurring a loss of about taka 60 to 70 crore per year failing to compete in the local market due to its high cost of production, they said.

Only two-three units of the mill, of the seven, were somehow in operation for the past three years.

Meanwhile, Chittagong steel mills' employees staged amass hunger strike in Chhittagong on Monday and decided to stage a demonstration on Wednesday and observe a dawn-to-dusk general strike in the Port city onThursday, demanding reopening of the mill by May 12.

All the local units of Opposition political parties have expressed solidarity with workers' demands. Workers today claimed that mill could be made profitable if the authorities provided a working capital of taka 40 crore.

On the other hand, quoting concerned sources in Chittagong, the United News of Bangladesh (UNB) news agency, said the mills would remain under layoff for next two years. BSEC sources in Chittagong said it was scheduled to be laid off on March 31, but the decision was held back in the face of resistance from the employees and workers.