Develop Phulbari coal mine to resolve power crisis

Chamber leaders urge govtUnb, Dhaka


Business leaders of different chamber bodies of northern districts at a discussion at a city hotel yesterday urged the government to move to develop the Phulbari coal mine without any further delay. They saw the huge coal reserve at the Phulbari coal mine as the only option now to deal with future energy crisis, particularly in power generation.
“We can easily produce 3,500MW of electricity from the coal to be extracted from the Phulbari mine,” said Rangpur Chamber President Mostafa Azad Chowdhury, adding that as the country’s gas reserve is depleting fast, coal is becoming the only option for power generation. Greater Rangpur-Dinajpur Industry-Business Development Forum organised the discussion on ‘Industrialisation in Rangpur-Dinajpur: Energy availability’ at Sheraton Hotel with President of the forum Nazrul Islam in the chair.
Former PDB member Fazlul Haque presented a keynote paper on the topic. Former lawmakers Mizanur Rahman Manu and Asaduzzaman Noor, leaders of eight chambers of the northern districts — Rajshahi, Dinajpur, Rangpur, Lalmonirhat, Nilphamari, Gaibandha, Panchaghar and Joypurhat — also spoke at the function.
The speakers, supporting the open pit mining at Phulbari coal mine as it provides more than 80 percent extraction of resources, urged the government to ensure proper compensation to those who would be affected by the development of the mine. “The authorities concerned have to ensure that the affected people would be properly compensated and rehabilitated,” said former LGED chief engineer Monwar Hossain Chowdhury. If the government fails to take the decision in proper time to extract coal from Phulbari mine, Bangladesh might lose the opportunity to use its coal, as there might be a bar on coal extraction worldwide in future, he added.
Former BGMEA president Tipu Munshi expressed his frustration over the poor attention of the government to the development of mineral resources of the northern region. He further said the people of the northern region should not be deprived of coal resources due to the antipathy by a section of people. Forum leader MA Majid termed the opposition to coal extraction in Phulbari an international conspiracy.
Editor of the Bangladesh Observer Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury suggested that those who oppose open pit mining and those support open pit should sit together to reach a consensus through a logical debate.

The Daily Star, Bangladesh
Date: 27/08/08
Link: http://thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=52084