The rapidly growing mobile phone industry in Bangladesh has opened up a new avenue for electro-mechanical engineering sector as microwave towers are now being built locally, reducing the import cost of such expensive structures.

The cost of installation of an imported tower is 50 per cent higher than local made ones. A 42-metre local made tower costs Tk 24 lakh while 70-metre costs Tk over 1 crore.

PowerTrade-Bidisha Consortium, a joint venture engineering firm, has started manufacturing almost all components of such towers and installing those in Bangladesh mainly for GrameenPhone Ltd (GP), the largest cell phone operator in Bangladesh.

"Since 2000, we have erected 127 four-legged self-support microwave towers and another 20 three-legged ones for GrameenPhone," said SM Fakhar-Uz-Zaman, chief executive officer (CEO) of PowerTrade. At present, the GP has 225 such towers in use.

Besides, the engineering firm also set up 100 rooftop towers across the country.

"All components of a tower are locally made excepting a few for the legs," Zaman said, adding the company has been taking full design support from Tower Master, a leading tower manufacturing company of Malaysia.

The tower designs are made taking into account Bangladesh's environment and finally approved by the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) before installation.

PowerTrade-Bidihsa having 150 employees, including 18 engineers, fabricates and installs four types of towers -- 42, 52, 60 and 70-metre in height.

Earlier, the company used to import, supply and install towers for GP. "But in 2001, the import was stopped when we started manufacturing those locally," said Zaman.

State-owned Bangladesh Diesel Plant at Gazipur and another private company have also installed a few towers of smaller capacity for GP. "But we are the first Bangladeshi company to manufacture towers," said the PowerTrade-Bidihsa CEO.

About future plan, Zaman said negotiations are going on with Telecom Malaysia International Bangladesh (TMIB), operating company of AKTEL mobile phones, for installing towers for the company.

Zaman said it is possible to supply electrical transmission towers to the government at 20-25 per cent cheaper rate than imported towers. "At present, the government has to spend over Tk 100 crore per year for importing such electric towers," he said.