Al Mamun Harun Ur Rashid :
Amid the nationwide severe electricity crisis which has prompted the government to ration power through load shedding, the Barapukuria has started extracting mining coals after three months.
Currently the country has about 2000MW of load shedding which has been hampering the smooth functioning of different sectors including medium and large industries as well as public lives.
The current demand for electricity ranges between 14,000MW and 14,500MW but the power plants are generating 12,000-13,000MW.
Due to the shortfall of gas, fuel or coal, the electricity production has been hampered because the power plants are failing to generate electricity as per the demand of the national demand.
Such situation has been created partially because the government has stopped import of Liquefied Natura Gas (LNG) from Middle East countries like Oman and Qatar to save dollars to protect the depletion of foreign reserve which is now below 40 billion.
However, Barapukuria Coal Mining Company Limited (BCMCL) sources said that the extraction of coals will be used for electricity generation at the coal based power plant there and it will ultimately contribute to the national grid.
The mining of coals had begun on Wednesday and on the first day of the trial some 2500 tonnes of coals were extracted from the country’s northern region coal mine in Dinajpur district.
BCMCL sources said that around 700 workers – four hundred local and three hundred Chinese – are extracting coals round the clock to expedite the production.
They said that it was a good news for restarting the mining and the generation of electricity from the coal-based power plant because it would relieve the country to some extent from load shedding.
The entire country is experiencing severe electricity crisis as the government is failing to supply adequate electricity against the demand.
The load shedding is severe in many parts of the country especially the rural areas and towns suffer the worst as these areas experience more than five hours of
load shedding daily.
The government’s major concern is to save the forex reserve to rescue the country from the looming economic meltdown.
As part of the saving reserves, the government has undertaken multiple austerity programems to save dollars.
The government has downed the electricity production by not supplying gas, fuel, coals imported from other countries to power plants because the production cost is high now.
However, the energy experts off and on suggested the government to reduce the high dependency for gas, fuel and coals on other countries and to pay attention to the local resources. They suggested to the exploration of local gas fields, coal mines and renewable energies to meet the growing demands of energy across the country.
Amid such a situation, the restarting of coal mine in Barapukuria has ushered a new hope for generating electricity by coals.
“The coal extraction began on Wednesday after three months. On the first day, the production was 2500 tonnes. Some 700 workers both local and Chinese are working round the clock,” Md. Shaiful Islam Sarkar, Managing Director of BCMCL, told the New Nation on Thursday.
“It’s a good news for us. If we can extract coal adequately, it will contribute to the coal-fired power plant for electricity generation which will ultimately generate some 200MW,” he added.
But the Managing Director came up with a bad news that some of the workers both local and Chinese have been tested corona positive, which is a growing concern as it might affect the production.
“Some 143 workers were tested and the result came with 16 positive with corona. The Chinese people are very serious about the matter. We will get a result tomorrow about the next course of action about the production,” he added.
He also said that Chinese authority doesn’t want to keep their people idle and we are hopeful that production will start in the full swing.
“If we can extract adequate coals, it will help generate electricity to keep the wheels of industries running,” he added.
