Deal for dev of Dighipara coalfield to be signed today

Barapukuria Coal Mining Company Ltd (BCMCL) will sign a contract with MIBRAG Consulting International, Germany, FUGRO Consult GmbH, Germany and Runge Pincock Minarco Limited, Australia Today (Tuesday) to develop Dighipara coalfield in the northwestern part of the country.
Earlier, government had decided that BCMCL will implement the project which aims to feed the coal-fired power projects and asked to appoint consultant to conduct a feasibility study on the proposed coal field development project.
"A DPP was drafted earlier estimating the cost at Tk 3,200 crore to develop the coal field and a Tk 167.67 crore feasibility study would be done under this study where some specific component would be discuss," a senior official of the BCMCL told the Daily Observer.
The state-run Geological Survey of Bangladesh (GSB) discovered the coalfield in 1995 with the depth range between 328 and 455 metres at 24 square kilometres coal basin at Dighipara. The coalfield has three major coal seams with geological reserve of 865 million tonnes at its three coal seams with 61 metres of thickness.
"The BCMCL plans to recover 432 million tonnes of coal considering 50 percent of coal extraction while the volume will be 303 million tonnes considering 35 percent extraction of the reservoir," the official said.
The country has now only  a running coalfield at Barapukuria against five fields with total reserves of 3565 million tonnes of coal.
According to the BCMCL the consortium will address the component including selection of mining methods based on technical parameter, selection of mining method, hydrogeological conditions, shape of the coal deposit life term of the mine. It will complete the job by September 30, 2019.
Energy Ministry sources said that the government is likely to install a 660MW capacity coal-fired power plant at the mine mouth of Dhighipara coal mine. Domestic coal production is currently only 1 million tonne from the country's lone functional coal mine in Barapukuria.
"After developing the Digipara coalfield, BCMCL is expected to increase coal production to 20,000 tonnes a day from existing 2,000 tonnes at Barapukuria coalmine," a senior official said.
The government will require 1.55 million tonnes of coal per year to implement the power project at Dighipara coal mine mouth having capacity of generation of 660MW electricity for the next 25 years period.
The reserve of the coal-mine is estimated at 150 million tonness of coal.
The government is expected to commission the coalfield by July 2023. The BCMCL would require a massive coalfield development programme at an estimated cost of Tk 3,200 crore, concerned official said.
It will conduct the mega task of the country's second coalmine through an underground method aiming at feeding the upcoming coal-fired power projects having capacity to generate 20,000MW electricity by using locally-extracted and imported coal by the year 2030.
The government, then, would require seven million tonnes of coal per year against the present capacity to produce only one million tonnes of coal at Barapukuria mine, officials said. After developing the Dighipara coalfield, the BCMCL is expected to increase coal production to 20,000 tonnes a day from only 3,000 tonnes now at Barapukuria.