By Lahiru Pothmulla
Sri Lanka’s first-ever facility to manufacture pre-stressed spun concrete poles used in electricity distribution is scheduled to be opened ceremoniously by President Maithripala Sirisena in Balangoda, Ratnapura this Friday (12).

The US $ 10 million project is by Senaka Zenn (Pvt.) Ltd, a joint venture between Senaka Builders (Pvt.) Ltd, a subsidiary of Senaka Group (Pvt.) Ltd, and Zenn Hrb Sdn Bhd of Malaysia, which provides the latest Japanese technology to create the concrete poles.

The facility, set up on a 31-acre land, is aimed at putting an end to the usage of wooden poles.
Senaka Group (Pvt.) Ltd Director Hashan Gurusinghe said wooden poles were usually used in rural and hill areas where it is difficult to carry and install the ordinary concrete polls. 

“The lifespan of a wooden pole is usually not more than 10 years and therefore, we have to replace it again and again. We used to import wooden poles from India and then Malaysia but had to stop importing because of numerous protests by the people against deforestation. Then we turned towards Finland,” he said.

He said about Rs.40,000 was spent to import one wooden pole and the factory would be able to manufacture one pre-stressed spun concrete pole for only about Rs.13,000, saving more than half of the amount spent to import a wooden pole.

Gurusinghe said they would give a 30-year warranty for a pre-stressed spun concrete pole when purchased by both the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) and Lanka Electricity Company (Pvt.) Ltd (LECO), but assured such a pole could last for almost 100 years without an issue.

 
An ordinary concrete pole usually takes 28 days to dry but a pre-stressed spun concrete pole would take only six hours to dry under the latest team curing technology, he said.

Commenting on the factory, Gurusinghe said they had acquired and developed a factory previously belonged to Lanka Walltiles PLC, providing job opportunities for the children of the factory’s previous employees.

“At present, we have about 250 residents as employees in the factory and we hope to gradually increase the number to 1,000. We have also discussed with several banks in the area to provide loan facilities for the residents who would grow albizia plants, which would be bought by the factory as fuel to steam cure poles,” he said.

In the second phase of the factory, Senaka Zenn (Pvt.) Ltd would consider exporting the pre-stressed spun concrete poles to countries such as India, the Maldives, the Seychelles and Oman. 

“If we were able to achieve this, pre-stressed spun concrete poles would be the first finished concrete product to be exported from Sri Lanka,” he said.