Sedan cars will start plying the highways in Bangladesh at the beginning of next year.
PHP, an industrial conglomerate based in Chittagong, is ready to manufacture cars of this model, the first of its kind in the private sector, in the country.
PHP is going to establish a unit at Anwara with a capacity of manufacturing 1200 Sedan cars a year.
The company is investing around Tk 4.0 billion (400 crore) for setting up the industry on 30 acres of land where several hundred workers including 50 per cent expert engineers will work, reports the Financial Express.
The PHP family signed an agreement with the Malaysian ‘Proton’ car manufacturer recently at Proton Centre for Excellent Complex in the Malaysian city of Slangor in this connection.
Proton CEO Dato Abdul Harith Abdullah and director of PHP management board Muhammed Iqbal Hossain Chowdhury signed the agreement on behalf of their respective companies.
Proton chairman and former Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohammed and PHP chairman Sufi Mohammed Mizanur Rahman were present during the event.
PHP family vice chairman Md Mohsin Chowdhury, managing director Akther Parvez Hiru and director Zahirul Islam Rinku also attended the signing ceremony.
PHP Automobile managing director Akther Parvez Hiru said the company will use the Turbo brand engine for the Proton Privy series cars. The cars will include both manual and auto-run facilities.
The PHP-made Proton cars will be named in Bangladesh as Proton PHP. The new Proton PHP will be cheaper than brand Toyota reconditioned cars. The brand will also cut the fuel cost, he said.
“Like reconditioned cars no fitness cost will be necessary during the initial five years of the use of this Proton PHP as it is a brand new one,” he said.
PHP vice chairman Md Mohasin Chowdhury said that the company would bear all repair expenses if the vehicle faces any technical problem within 25000 kilometres of Proton PHP run.
“The company will assure all repair services within 24 hours of reported problem,” he said. The company will establish six showrooms in six districts with service centres, he said.
Sources in the shipping lines said that around 15,000 reconditioned cars were imported in the country from Japan and other countries through Chittagong Port. 65-70 per cent of those imported cars are reconditioned Sedan cars.
Sedan began its journey as Proton Saga in Malaysia in 1985. It sold 13,000 cars of this brand in that year in Malaysia. The company sold 83,000 cars in the following year.
Proton is now manufacturing cars for different countries including the Middle East and Australia.
