Dinajpur Correspondent: Coal production has started at the new 1209-face Barapukuria mine in Parvatipur after a continuous shutdown of 48 days. Barapukuria Coal Mining Company Limited (BCMCL) authorities said in a press release on Friday night that coal mining has started on an experimental basis since 6 p.m. on Thursday, February 15.
Initially, 1500 to 2000 tons of coal will be mined on an experimental basis. Later, it is expected that coal can be extracted at a rate of 3,000 to 3,500 tons per day.
With the aim of supplying coal as fuel to the Barapukuria 525 MW thermal power plant for uninterrupted power generation, under the direction of the Board of Directors of Petrobangla and BCMCL, with all-out efforts of the officials of BCMCL and AMC-CMC Consortium and local miners, coal extraction from A face started 15 days before the scheduled time.
The 1209 face production target is 3.60 lakh metric tons, which is expected to be lifted by mid-July 2024. All the extracted coal will be supplied to the Barapukuria coal-based thermal power plant for uninterrupted power generation.
It may be noted that after the coal mining of 1412 face, coal mining is started after all equipment salvage, proper maintenance, and the installation of a new one-set power support from China in 1209 face.
The withdrawal of face number 1412 before face number 1209 ended on December 29 last year. About 2.72 lakh metric tons of coal were mined from the 1412 face, against the production target of 2.2 lakh metric tons. In the interest of mining safety, the 1412 face was sealed after equipment salvage on January 26.
At present, there are about 75 thousand tons of coal reserves in the Barapukuria mine and Barapukuria power plant area, according to PDB. 1 thousand 850 tons of coal are being used against the daily production of 180 megawatts of electricity at Barapukuria power station.
