Poor coal storage capacity of Barapukuria Coal Mining Company Limited (BCMCL) might force suspension of coal extraction anytime, a senior official of BCMCL feared.
“We have 205,000 tonnes coal stock capacity at Barapukuria, but at present there is an additional 29,000 tonnes of coal at the field,” Engr Md Quamruzzaman, managing director of BCMCL told daily sun yesterday.
The BCMCL earlier in February this year suspended coal extraction due to poor storage capacity, he said.
If we stop regular coal extraction, then two units of Barapukuria coal fired power plant will face shortage of primary fuel, he said.
Two units of the power plant utilised only 1700 tonnes of coal on Sunday against the daily requirement of 2500 tonnes, according to him. The rest amount of coal is consumed by brick fields and nearby factories, he added.
Barapukuria Power Plant is now generating 174 megawatt of electricity from its’ two units having capacity of 250MW, official said.
The government approved a proposal of the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) to construct a go-down with 100,000 tonnes capacity for Barapukuria power plant, BCMCL chief said.
The Barapukuria Power plant has a go-down with a capacity of only 25,000 tonnes of coal, he said adding the plant authority is yet to arrange a land for the plant for this purpose.
The Barapukuria mine has a reserve of around 389 million tonnes of coal and the company will extract 10 to 20 per cent of the total reserve through underground mining within next 30 years.
The government has so far extracted less than four million tonnes of coal from the Barapukuria coal field after resuming its production.
News Source: The Daily Sun