Concrete electric poles manufactured in SL under BOI agreement bring benefits

The Board of Investment of Sri Lanka has signed a Supplementary agreement with M/s Senaka Zenn Ltd. to set up a project to manufacture pre-stressed spun concrete electrical poles, piles and railway sleepers with an improved technology, for both local and export markets. The initial investment made by the company was $ 10.3 million.

The Supplementary Agreement was signed by Board of Investment of Sri Lanka Chairman Mangala Yapa, and Senaka Group of Companies Chairman/Managing Director Senaka Gurusinghe. The project is very significant because it is an import substitution project which will save Sri Lanka considerable foreign exchange and at the same time is environmentally friendly since it reduces the dependence on wooden poles. This results in a reduction for the need to fell trees.

Senaka Gurusinghe stated, “Our project was started in 2016 and so far a total of 100,000 poles have been supplied to the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), Lanka Electricity Company Ltd. (LECO) and Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT). The project was started as a substitute for the wooden poles used by CEB. In that connection I should also stress the fact that wooden poles have a lifetime of just 8-10 years at most, hence the use of concrete poles provides a more permanent solution to the country’s requirement.”

Regarding the quality of manufacture of his products Gurusinghe added, “Poles are made of spun concrete in Sri Lanka but using technology from Japan. The inside of the poles, is hollow, so, it is the same weight as the wooden poles and can be easily carried and installed. These advantages together with the environmental benefits mentioned make our products a very attractive proposition for Sri Lanka.”