Call for Base Stations to Be Removed from Bangladeshi Garment Factories

­Bangladesh's mobile networks are coming under pressure to remove their base station equipment from the roof tops of buildings housing garment factories.

A trade body representing fabric and garment manufacturers is pressing for their removal following the Rana Plaza collapse which killed 1,131 and injured thousands of workers.

There are concerns that in areas of weak compliance with building safety codes, that the towers may have been installed without the necessary permits, or without checking the strength of the building their are mounted on.

Ehsan Ul Fattah, secretary general of BGMEA asked the telecoms regulator to stop the mobile networks "establishing BTSs on roofs of garment buildings, especially on those which are weak."

However, it has been pointed out that a base station, even with standby batteries would weigh on average no more than 400kg -- or the equivalent of six people.