PHP Family, a Chittagong-based business group, plans to invest about Tk 31,600 crore to set up an integrated steel plant on 500 acres of land in Mirsarai Economic Zone.

All kinds of steel products will be manufactured at the plant, including materials for factory buildings.

PHP Family will have to start manufacturing in the complex within three years of agreement signing, said Paban Chowdhury, executive chairman of Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority. The agreement will be signed today.

The plant is expected to create 15,000 jobs directly and indirectly, said a high official of PHP Family.

“We will make the investments in phases that may take five to seven years,” Mohammed Iqbal Hossain, a director of PHP Family.

Hossain said PHP has a steel mill with an annual capacity of 3 lakh tonnes and it is building another factory of that capacity also.

“Our new integrated steel complex will basically act as a backward linkage factory for our existing steel mills,” he said. Replying to a query, Hossain said now they are not thinking about taking any new foreign investment.

“We will assess if anybody shows interest later,” he said.

Hossain said Bangladesh is very open to foreign investors, but it gets very difficult for local ones.

Established in 1969, PHP Family has concerns in 29 fields, including steel, float glass, aluminium, textiles, power, petroleum products, ship recycling, fisheries and so on.