Govt wants 5,000 mt coal per day from Barapukuria mine

Zarif Mahmud: The government wants to pass the production of Dinajpur’s Barapakuria coal mine to 5,000 metric tons (mt) per day. Sources in the Energy Department said that instructions have been given to the mine authorities for this. Recently, a letter has been sent from the Energy Department seeking to know what Barapukuria Mine has done to implement this directive. Barapukuria coal mine authority sources say that now 1700 metric tons of coal is being extracted daily. In order to increase the production of Barapukuria mine to 5,000 tons per day, the daily production has to be increased to 3,300 tons.
According to Barapukuria mine records, 97,577 tons of coal was extracted from the mine last December. That is, as of 30 days, the amount of which is 3,252 tons per day. 57,122 tons of coal was lifted from Barapukuria last January. This daily lift is about 2,000 tons less than the target.
Barapukuria Coal Mining Company Limited (BCMCL) has announced plans to take more initiatives to bring coal from new face ‘1307’ to near target to reduce the production gap in the current scenario.
In a letter signed by the Ministry’s Joint Secretary Mohammad Farooq Hossain on March 15, it was requested to know the progress regarding the extraction of coal from Barapukuria mine.
Barapukuria is the only coal mine in the country. Barapukuria thermal power plant is run with coal lifted from here. This plant cannot run at full capacity due to lack of coal supply. However, despite the government’s emphasis on increasing mining production, the Barapukuria mine authorities say that it is not possible to extract more coal than this underground method.
A former managing director of Barapukuria Coal Mine said, We proposed to the government for open pit mining in Barapukuria. A huge land acquisition of 4000 acres is required for this mining. Due to this, a large number of people will have to be relocated from this region. A huge amount of funding is required for this massive undertaking. However, this matter is still under the consideration of the government, he said.
Now Barapukuria coal is mined underground. Maximum 10% of coal can be extracted. The remaining 90% is coal. An official of the Energy Department said, Earlier, Minister of State for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid, in a meeting, ordered to take initiatives to increase the daily production target from Barapukuria mine to 5,000 tons.
When asked about this, General Manager (Planning and Exploration and Surface Operations) Abu Taher said. Noor Uz Zaman Chowdhury said, The coal mining of the old phase is over, the new phase has been changed and ready, coal mining has not yet started from there. He also said, several proposals have been sent to the ministry about lifting other than underground to increase production. No instructions have come yet.’