Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association(BGMEA) is standing firm on its call for the removal of Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) from roofs of buildings housing garment factories, raising major concern amongst the country’s telecommunications operators.
The RMG apex body is seeking support from the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) for its demand and sent a letter on the issue to the BTRC on Tuesday.
BGMEA wants BTS towers removed from all garment buildings, especially those located in the Savar, Ashulia, Gazipur and Kanchpur areas. The organisation says it has found many garment buildings, on which mobile BTSs were established without properly examining their infrastructural design.
It argued in its statements on May 13 that BTS removal could help avoid accidents like the April 24 Rana Plaza collapse which killed 1,131 and injured thousands.
It claims that such “infrastructures can cause garment building collapse. So, BGMEA is seeking BTRC’s help to take necessary steps removing the BTSs.”
Ehsan Ul Fattah, secretary general of BGMEA, commenting on the letter, said: “Now BTRC can serve a letter to all the mobile operators, preventing them from establishing BTSs on roofs of garment buildings, especially on those which are weak.”
He said, “BGMEA has already conducted survey through its wings and are adamant on the issue.”
Tanveer Mohammad, chief technology officer of Grameenphone told the Dhaka Tribune on Tuesday, that a BTS hardly weighs 300kg. If more power is needed, extra batteries can take it to a maximum weight of 400kg, he claimed, which is similar to that of five to six persons.
“Both industries need find a solution and we want to sit down with BGMEA through the Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh (AMTOB),” Tanveer said.
Other mobile operators have raised similar objections to the removal call arguing that life loads, not BTS are the heaviest weights on garments factories.
“BGMEA’s decision will affect at least 200 BTS, which will create a telecom disaster in the country,” a highly placed official at a leading mobile operator requesting anonymity told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
Meanwhile, an executive member of the Real Estate and Housing Association of Bangladesh (REHAB,) apex body of the country’s housing sector, appeared to support the telecom companies’ concerns pointing out that “If a building does not have any problem in its structural design, a 300kg BTS may not create any (undue) additional pressure.”BTRC Chairman Sunil Kanti Bose could not be reached for comment despite several attempts by the Dhaka Tribune. No official was available to talk on this issue, following BTRC imposed restrictions on talking to media which came into effect on June 12.