Window on Asia
Quality Coals and Hard Rocks
Barapukuria Coal Mine is the first of its kind in Bangladesh. At its full development, at least 10,000 miners will be employed. At the wage rate of Tk. 100 per day, 300 working days, Tk. 300 million worth of disposable income will be generated, each year, within the confines of the mining town. In terms of employment, this would be the largest venture of the country. Also, it is not once for all, project type of income and employment generation. The coal mine should last 100 years, if not more. The employment would be on a permanent basis.
Coal is a source of energy and the alternative natural gas is much more acceptable from environmental point of view.. After opening of the bridge across river Jamuna, the gas pipeline would soon reach North Bengal. Therefore, the argument runs, burning gas, instead of coal, to generate electricity for Rajshahi Division may be cost effective as well as environmentally sound and sustainable.
The power plant close to the mine head will save transport cost and should be equally cost effective. The sulfur content of Barapukuria coal is negligible, resulting in minimum pollution. The most important consideration in favour of a coal fired power plant is its employment effect. Use of natural gas, instead of coal will not generate even one-tenth of that employment.
There is a tremendous shortage of bio-mass in the country. Few months back, in a mango orchard within a distance of 20 kilometers from Barapukuria, I found at least 20 children busy picking up the fallen brown leaves, instead of attending the school near by. There is a strong competition to gather fuel for cooking and the orchard ground looked clean - devoid of a single fallen leaf.
Before partition in 1947, coal from mines in Bihar and West Bengal used to be available all over North Bengal. The pressure on biomass as a source of fuel was consequently much less. Today, after half a century, the population has increased three times and there is no coal stove any where. North Bengal is practically denuded of fuel wood. The grave and serious implications should be clearly understood. There seems to be no concern by anyone whatsoever. The fuel wood famine forces children of poor landless families to abstain from schools since scavenging for leaves and twigs is far more important for bare survival than attending schools. Barapukuria coal must be made widely available for domestic use and lessen the pressure on biomass. Cost of fuel wood would consequently go down. An effective substitute fuel for cooking is possible and why we shouldn't go for it as quickly as possible.
Wide spread marketing of coal for domestic and household use all over Bangladesh will be facilitated by the location of Barapukuria mine very close to the Parbatipur Railway Junction. It would facilitate distribution of coal all over the country, by using both the broad and metre gauge lines. Moreover, retailing of coal will be a new business and create thousands of outlets - adding further to employment and income.
Coal can be the basis of other industries as well. Iron ore can be imported from India by the Railways and together with Barapukuria coal, form the ideal basis for large scale steel production in Bangladesh. Remember, the Pohang Steel Mill of South Korea was opposed by the World Bank It was ignored by the Government. Today, the huge Korean basic steel industry, based on imported iron ore, constitute the mainstay of the massive industrialization of the country.
The export led expansion of light manufacturing, the World bank recommended strategy of growth, may not be adequate for Bangladesh - the ninth most populous country of the world. Our development priorities, if we should quadruple our per capita income over the next two decades, must be well diversified. In this process, light manufacturing alone is not good enough. Coal opens up the opportunities for both employment creation and industrialization on a broad front. Moreover, coal can save our biomass and utter misuse of cow dung as a fuel - thus contributing to the growth in agriculture.
The Barapukuria coal mine is going to be operational very soon and start accumulating mountains of coal over ground since the corresponding power plant is yet to be constructed - in fact, it has not yet gone beyond the planning stage. As explained, it is not only generation of electricity, there are several other far reaching implications for which mining of coal, its use in electricity generation and its retail marketing for domestic use - should all proceed in harmony and contributions from our natural resources to GDP growth is maximized. The objective should be multidimensional, unlike the present single dimension view of coal versus natural gas for electricity generation only.
The hard rocks of Madhyapara is another vital natural resource whose exploitation is being delayed due to conspicuous lack of timely decision. The rocks have to be viewed as a basic construction material which we simply did not possess so far. Its comparison vis-a-vis imported rocks or other existing domestic sources of stones and boulders are hardly warranted since the rocks that can be mined at Madhyapara are of a far superior quality leading to significant improvement to our standard of construction - be it multistoried buildings, bridges and barrage, coastal embankments or erosion control structures on our mighty rivers. Hard rocks open up a completely new vision of development of our basic infrastructures.
The most important part of the hard rock mine consist of the construction of shafts for underground mining and lifting of hard rocks which are going to be completed very soon. What is still lacking is the railway link to carry stones all over the country. What is the delay? Why such a vital input to national development is being delayed? Who will explain?
Similar to Barapukuria coal mine, the hard rock mine at Madhyapara has the potential to generate employment of several thousand workers. In addition, rock based building material industries on small to medium scale, would be feasible all over the country. Locally produced floor and wall tiles are likely to become exportable products from Bangladesh. At present, huge quantities of such materials are imported every year.
Simply stated, quality coal and high grade granites open up immense possibilities in such an area of Bangladesh where not a single large scale industry or for that matter any other significant enterprise have come on stream since liberation in 1971. Dinajpur remained one of the most backward districts of the country. Mining development gives the area a golden opportunity to grow and prosper. Let us not forget that regional disparities quickly develop into bombshells ready for explosion at any time. We suffered in the past from such economic exploitation and denial of mining development in Dinajpur amounts to renewal of policies in favour of enhanced disparities. Political implications of regressive in-actions should be clearly understood by all concerned.
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