Tenure of low-performing contractor extended

Germania-Trest Consortium (GTC) will operate Madhyapara hard rock mine in Dinajpur until July 2021 despite its poor performance.
 "We signed a six-year contract with GTC in 2013, a consortium between Bangladesh-based Germania Corporation Ltd and Belarus-based JSC Trest Shakhtos Petsstroy for management of operation and development, production and maintenance of Madhyapara hard rock mine. Though the tenure of GTC expired on February 14, 2020,  we have allowed them to continue operation until July this year," a senior official of the Energy Division told the Daily Observer on Tuesday.
The Madhyapara mine area spans over 1.2 square kilometres and has a reserve of around 174 million tonnes of hard rock and granite. However, country needs around 70 lakh tonnes of rock annually and the MGMLC have the capacity to supply over 10 lakh tonnes a year if production goes smoothly.
"As per the previous contract, the company had to produce 92,000 tonnes of rock during its contract period but it extracted only 37,000 tonnes. For last two months, interestingly, GTC is producing around 5,000 tonnes of rocks per day and earning Tk 40 crore per month,"  Petrobangla official said.
"Now GTC is showing its capacity only to sign a long term final agreement with the government," the official added.
Regarding its poor performance, GTC claimed that the relationship between the officials of MGMCL and GTC deteriorated over various issues, which affected the production and sales.
"The government changes eight managing directors of MGMCL in GTC tenure (in the last five years) due to this cause," the official added.
North Korean company Namnam prepared and developed the mine in 2006 and operated it over 12 years under North Korean supplier's     credit. The mining authority sells boulder rocks, larger than 200milimetre at US$30 per tonne and crushed rocks, 60 millimetre to 05 mm between $29 and $33 per tonne.
Hard rock dust is being sold at $10 per tonne.
Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant, Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, Bangladesh Railway, Bangladesh Water Development Board and many private organisations use Maddhapara rocks as building material but in last six months it incur huge losses.
MGMCL also delivers stone for building the rail link on Padma Bridge and Bangabandhu Bridge and many state-run organisations also expressed their willingness to use MGMCL's rocks in their development projects.