Government renews deal with Barapukuria coal mine, pays 5% more

The government is renewing its deal with Barapukuria Coal mine company for purchasing coal for the next 6 years.

The coal will be bought with 5 per cent more of the estimated price. The price of coal per tonne, including VAT and tax, has been set at $ 85.85, officials said.

The contractor of the XMC-CMC consortium offers this price for the next 6 years, according to the document of the Energy Division.

"Barapukuria is the lone extractable coal mine in the country where Chinese XMC-CMC consortium is working as a contractor since the inception of the mine in 2005,” said an official of the Energy Division adding the agreement of coal procurement expired on Tuesday and that the deal should be renewed to keep getting uninterrupted coal supplies.

The Energy Division’s proposal of renewing the procurement deal will be placed before the Cabinet committee on public purchase this afternoon.

The proposal of the Chinese contractor company has already been approved by Prime Minister Shiekh Hasina and it is being placed today before the Cabinet Committee on Government Procurement, accordingly.

According to the Energy Division summary, the next extractions will take place in the north and south part of the mine under the fresh agreement.
A US company, John T. Boyd, conducted the feasibility study for mining coal from those two parts, North and South, respectively.

In the next 6 years, a total of 4.5 million tonnes of coal will be purchased from the company with a price of Tk 1,049.48 crore, officials said.