DOMESTIC COAL RESERVES TO USE OR NOT TO USE

Whether Bangladesh will make a firm decision on the use of its own coal reserves for power generation is an issue being debated again.

- Farid Hossain

The question has always been critical and interesting as even the experts – not to speak of the government policymakers – could arrive at a consensus on it. Bangladesh has an estimated 834 million tonnes of mineable coal across its five coalfields, according to the latest figure presented in a recent seminar held in Dhaka. The seminar was told that open-pit mining would be required in the extraction of the reserves in most of the fields. Deliberations rightly focused on the country’s dilemma of whether to continue to use imported coal for power generation or go for using its reserves. The previous Awami League government had opted for imported coal in running the coal-based power plants and closed all files regarding the use of the domestic reserves. The 2006 tragic incident in Phulbari which saw two people dead and many injured in violence over the planned open-pit coal mining there helped the then government decide against mining the country’s reserves.