Staff Reporter :
The final report of water modeling and hydro-geological survey on Barapukuria coalmine says that open-pit mining is possible there. The government has planned open-pit coal mining at the northern part of Barapukuria coalfield in Dinajpur to use the extracted coal in power plants.
The Institute of Water Modelling, which conducted the survey, has suggested carrying out a mandatory geo-technical feasibility study before making the decision of open-pit mining.The survey report was disclosed at a workshop in the capital on Monday.
Water modelling and hydro-geological survey were conducted at the Barapukuria site to determinethe flow of underground water required for extracting coal through open-pit mining method.
Aiming to open the northern part of Barapukuria coalfield, the Energy Ministry started the initiative a few years ago. It engaged the Institute of Water Modelling of the Water Resources Ministry to conduct the survey to avoid any controversy over the coal-extraction method.
“If the Barapukuria coal mine authorities want to go for open-pit mining, it will have to pump out around 400 million cubic metres of water an hour for de-watering operation,” Petrobangla official said.
The modelling has taken into account the levels of groundwater pumped from several wells, flood waters, irrigation and rain waters in the last two years in the area.
However, it has not considered human, economic or environmental aspects, even the re-settlement issues, for the survey.
The IWM conducted water modelling on an area of 60 square-kilometres at Barapukuria coal mine site to determine the flow of underground water (aquifer) for extracting coal under the open-pit method, aiming at boosting coal production.
“The government can go for open-pit mining at the northern part of Barapukuria, subject to the technical feasibility study on mining issues and economical viability,” he said.
“We need to calculate the price of crops and we should remember that northern part [of the country] is the land of food; so, we need to calculate the value of the food and the farmers’ livelihood,” he said.
The Barapukuria basin contains 390m tonnes of coal at a depth ranging from 118 metres to 503 metres below surface.
The state-owned Ashuganj Power Station Company has planned to set up a 1,320MW coal-based plant at the mouth of Barapukuria coal mine.
According to the government’s power sector roadmap, the country aims at generating around 20,000MW of electricity from coal-based plants by 2030; of this, 11,250MW will be generated using domestic coal while the rest using imported coal.
