Coal storage at the country's lone operative coalmine at Barapukuria in northern Dinajpur has already exceeded capacity due to lower-than-expected consumption, posing a threat of combustion to the coal yard, sources said.
The quantity of stockpiled coal produced from Barapukuria is currently 400,000 tonnes, which is double the capacity of the designated coal storage yard.
State-owned Barapukuria Coal Mining Company Ltd (BCMCL) has now been forced to store some 200,000 tonnes of additional coal in the nearby playground, they said.
They added although production of coal from Barapukria had increased significantly over the past year, its consumption had not increased as expected.
Besides, the main consumer of Barapukuria coal - the state-owned Barapukuria coal-fired power plant - consumes coal at a much lesser volume than presumed.
The power plant consumes only around 1,200 tonnes of coal per day, although it was supposed to consume around 2,000 tonnes of coal per day for electricity generation.
Currently, the 250 megawatt (mw)-capacity coal-fired power plant can hardly generate electricity in its full capacity through running both of its units with 125-mw capacity each, a senior official of state-owned Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) said.
Technical glitches have already eaten up its full-strength electricity generation capacity, he admitted.
Although the government has moved to build a new 250-mw coal-fired power plant at Barapukuria, it would take a long time for implementation, said the official.
Private sector consumers, including brick kilns and tea gardens, are consuming around 3,000 tonnes of coal per day.
Political crisis across the country over the past one year also reduced consumption of the Barapukuria coal.
Coal production from Barapukuria had doubled to 5,000 tonnes per day after June, 2013, as the BCMCL adopted a new system - 'long wall top coal caving' - instead of the previous long-wall system to extract coal, BCMCL Managing Director Md Aminuzzaman told the FE Tuesday.
The Barapukuria coalmine is producing high quality bituminous coal with very negligible sulfur quantity, he said.
Heating value of Barapukuria coal is around 11,040 british thermal unit (btu) per pound, said the BCMCL top official.
Officials said the government should take necessary steps to increase consumption of local coal to keep the Barapukuria coalmine operational.
Otherwise, the coalmine must have to be kept shut on safety ground.
"We shall be compelled to keep the mine shut if the coal storage exceeds safety margin," said Mr Aminuzzaman.
