Doel', one of the four models of cheaper laptop manufactured by state-owned Telephone Shilpa Sangstha (TSS), will hit the market by the end of this month, the telecommunications minister has said.

"The price of Doel will be Tk 12,000," Rajiuddin Ahmed Raju told reporters on Friday.

"Apart from the commoners, school and college students will be able to buy the low-priced laptops," he said after seeing the trial run of the laptop factory at TSS in Gazipur.

"We've planned to export the laptops in the future after meeting the local demand," he added.

On Thursday, the minister told parliament that there would be four models of the laptop priced at Tk 10,000, 12,000, 21,000 and 25,000 which would hit the market later this month after the prime minister's approval.

The efforts to market the laptops had been going on for over two-and-a-half years.

"Now it's a Tk 1.48 billion project. At least 10,000 laptops will be produced here per month. The project can be expanded if TSS gets a larger space for its factory," he told the journalists.

TSS managing director Mohammad Ismail said, "The project is being implemented in collaboration with the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Malaysian Thin Film Transistor (TFT) and foreign experts."

He said 60 percent of the laptop parts, including the motherboard, would be manufactured in the factory.

"The factory will initially produce some 200 laptops experimentally," Ismail said.