The coal yards at the Barapukuria Coal Mining Company Limited are already overflowing while fresh supplies are coming in every day as the Chinese contractor lifting the coal has refused to comply with requests to suspend operations.
The China National Machinery Import and Export Company, responsible for mining the coal, has refused to listen to repeated requests made by the Barapukuria coal mine co to suspend its production or letting it up for a while, said Shaiful Islam Sarkar, managing director, BCMCL.
鈥楤esides suffering loss from keeping its outsourced miners idle, the Chinese company is also worried about other negative aspects of suspending mining halfway through,鈥� said Shaiful.
Leaving the work halfway through could mean building of poisonous gas inside the mine or letting the exposed reserve to spontaneous combustion, he explained.
鈥楾he Chinese company will not suspend production under any circumstances,鈥� he further said, adding that over 3.20 lakh tonnes of coal was in store at present at the company鈥檚 two coal yards, sending the coal stacks more than 15 metres high, three times the usual height.聽
The Chinese contractor, with 1,100 local and 250 Chinese staff, is lifting 5,000 tonnes of coal every day, the entire production supposed to be supplied to and consumed by the Barapukuria Coal Power Plant.
A subsidiary of the Bangladesh Power Development Board, the coal power plant requested the BCMCL, a subsidiary of Petrobangla, several times since September last year, to suspend the coal production for several months.
The 525MW Barapukuria power plant has three units of which the second one with 125MW capacity has been out of operation since 2020. The rest of the two units, which used to intermittently shut down due to lack of maintenance, suffered complete shutdown in mid-February to resume sometime later.
Currently the Boropukuria power plant produces about 220MW electricity which is likely to increase by about 20MW over the next six months that may slightly raise the coal demand.
The power plant can at present consume maximum 2,500 tonnes of coal every day, leaving half of the daily production unused, adding 2,500 tonnes of coal to the already towering stacks.
鈥業 don鈥檛 find the Chinese company鈥檚 explanation regarding suspending the production credible,鈥� said Mohammad Abu Bakar Siddique, the chief engineer of the plant.
鈥楾he coal mining company is being fooled by the Chinese contractor. Foreigners will always try to exhaust reserve as fast as they can,鈥� said Abu Bakar.
The Chinese contractor is supposed to lift 4.5 million tonnes between 2022 and 2027 under the fresh contract signed with the BCMCL.
BCMCL authorities said that the contract did not contain anything about reducing production under special circumstances.
Energy expert M Tamim called for a review of the contract, expressing his surprise at the continued coal extraction despite the storage capacity overflowing.
鈥榃here would they keep it?鈥� he asked.
Tamim recalled occasions on which the Barapukuria power plant remained out of operation because of the contractor failing to supply coal.
鈥業 don鈥檛 recall any penalty slapped on the contractor because of their failure,鈥� he said.
The Chinese company engaged in the mining has sparked a heated debate exposing Bangladesh鈥檚 incapacity to develop own manpower to carry out a work that rarely requires foreign expertise in other countries, including neighbouring India.
The main task of the coal mine, from designing the coal extraction plan to supervising workers, are done by the Chinese contractor, said officials.
Both the Barapukuria Coal Mining Company Limited and the Bangladesh Power Development Board, the owner of the coal plant, were busy spraying water on their coal stacks continuously as the dry season of winter presumably facilitated self-combustion.
The extraction target for the current phase of mining at Barapukuria is nearly five lakh tonnes.
The BCMCL has a 250-strong workforce and most of them do not work inside the mine.
After the coal field was discovered in 1985, the BCMCL extended its contract with the China National Machinery Import and Export Co to develop the mine and then extract coal through 2027.
The BCMCL started extracting coal in 2005, lifting 13.02 million tonnes by June 2022. Of the extracted coal, 9.54 million tonnes was used in the 525MW coal power plant, while 3.35 million tonnes was supplied to different industries in the country.
Coal sales to local buyers except the power plant have remained suspended since 2018 after the discovery that over 1.43 lakh tonnes of coal went missing between 2006 and 2018.
鈥業t鈥檚 high time we asked why we still needed a Chinese company to lift coal at Barapukuria,鈥� said energy expert Ijaz Hossain.
The BPDB has recently formed a committee to find ways to manage the huge storage of coal.