It is reported that the ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources last week rejected the Petrobangla proposal for export of 0.2 million tonne of coal.

Well placed official sources said the Petrobangla proposal to the MPEMR last month for export of coal due to storage problem and risk element.

The sources said a total of 0.2 million tonne of coal in the coal yard of the Barapukuria Coal Mining Limited is now lying in the coal yard against the storage capacity of a total of 0.2 million tonne.

Senior official of the coal plant said "We have produced nearly 3,000 tonne of coal daily against the demand of 1,200 tonne for a single unit of the Barapukuria power plant," adding that the authority could not follow the storage rule of coal as the consumption of the coal is poor against the production. For this, the coal burning incidents is a regular phenomenon.

According to coal extraction rules, it must be consumed within 3 to 6 months after extraction. But the half of the total stock at Barapukuria was nearly a year old.

The source said the production of the Barapukuria Coal is estimated at about 1 million tonne this year against the demand of 0.6 million tonne.

Mr Md Muqtadir Ali chairman of Petrobangla said the Petrobangla has been requesting the government to take steps either for local consumption or export of 0.2 million tonne of coal floating international tender to vacate the coal yard.

Mr Ali said that the Petrobangla would get positive response from the ministry in this regard. A total of 0.23 million tonne of coal has so far been extracted from Barapukuria plant since it went into operation in September 2005.

(Sourced from www.energybangla.com)