MHMP: A prospective project that needs protection
Tisha Tasmin quoting experts | Saturday, 14 June 2008
FOLLOWING completion and handing over of Bangladesh's first hard rock mining project, vested interest groups are active to make the project a failure thereby thwarting Bangladesh's immense prospect for saving a huge amount of foreign currency as well opening up a new vista of opportunity to earn hard currency by exporting world-class granite tiles.
It is learnt from competent sources that Bangladesh's annual requirement of hard rock is above 7.9 million tons. Even during recent times, almost the entire quantity of hard rock was coming from India, while some portion was also coming from Myanmar and Malaysia. Before initiating the Madhyapara Hard Rock Mining Project [MHMP], export price for each ton of hard rock was US$ 64. But, MHMP played an important role in putting pressure on the international suppliers in reducing the price up to the lowest level at US$ 22. During the construction of Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge, India and other suppliers could not increase the price, fearing Bangladesh may postpone the construction and wait for hard rocks from Madhyapara.
The MHMP was basically the brainchild of late President Ziaur Rahman, who during his visit to Democratic Peoples Republic (DPR) of Korea requested the then North Korean leader to help Bangladesh in the mining sector. Later, when BNP formed government in 1992 with Khaleda Zia as the Prime Minister, a North Korean delegation visited Bangladesh and finalised the matter thus signing a Memorandum of Understanding. After several months' effort from both the sides, contract for the project was signed and the North Korean Nam-Nam Corporation was entrusted with its the implementation. After almost 16 years of challenging work, Nam-Nam Corporation completed the project and handed it over to Petro Bangla on May 25 last year. Commercial production of the project has already started. It is expected that the project will be able to produce 1.65 million tons of hard rock annually thus saving more than US$ 360 million of foreign exchange. Moreover, according to experts, if the production of the project could be diversified in establishing a plant to cut and produce high quality granite tiles, it would meet the local demand as well as open a new vista of opportunity for Bangladesh in getting a large income from the export trade.
Until implementation of the MHMP, Bangladesh had to depend mostly on import to meet the local requirement of hard rock, while only a small portion of the total requirement could be collected from the river bed in Sunamganj and Panchagarh districts. But, in recent years, India already placed wired trap at the upper flow of water, which stops boulders and gravels from flowing down to the Bangladesh territory. Such attempt by the Indian authorities is taken to stop Bangladesh from getting local supply of rocks and stones so that ultimately the country becomes completely dependent on import. Experts fear, fixing of wired net by India in the upstream of the rivers will ultimately limit the scope for Bangladesh in getting boulders, gravels and various types of small stones as well as coarse ones in the next several years, thus making the country, completely dependent on import.
Mining experts opine that the MHMP could be taken as a model for Bangladesh and similar projects could be implemented within the Northern districts such as Rangpur, Sayedpur, Panchagarh, etc. "Bangladesh needs to have at least three more projects like Madhyapara in order to meet the local demand", said the experts.
International importers and exporters of hard rock became active right after implementation of the MHMP and due to their negative role, even some of the state-owned organisations refrained from purchasing stones from the local source. According to a fact sheet of November 2007, the extracted hard rock of the Madhyapara mine, developed at a cost of TK 1,025 billion, remained piled up at the mine yard everyday as no interested public organisation procured the rocks ignoring the government directives.
The total stock of the extracted rocks from the mine, which started commercial production in May, stood at around 320 thousand tons as the major rock-procuring organisations such as the Roads and Highways, Bangladesh Water Development Board and the Bangladesh Railway were still dependent on imported rocks, said sources in the Madhyapara Granite Mining Company and Petrobangla.
The Chief Adviser's Office and the energy ministry directed the relevant organisations to procure the hard rock of the mine after they had come to know of the reluctance of such organisations in procuring Madhyapara rock. But despite such directives from the Chief Advisor's office and the Energy Ministry, there was no response from these departments in connection with the procurement of rock from the MHMP.
North Korean state-owned enterprise, Nam-Nam developed the mine at a cost of $198 million, of which $120 million was North Korean supplier's credit.
Although the prices of high-quality Madhyapara rocks were lower than those of imported varieties, it was unfortunate that the government organisations were not supporting a public sector project built at such huge costs.
Private-sector organisations do not also show much interest in buying the rocks of Madhyapara.
The price of Madhyapara boulder including VAT is $15.90 a ton whereas the price of imported boulder is around $ 21.60. The price of Madhyapara crushed-stone is US$17.90 a ton and imported crushed-stone costs US $ 27 a ton.
"Service contractors, engaged by the public-sector organisations for their work such as the protection of embankment or construction of road, as well as private-sector organisations depend on imported rocks to siphon off money by evading taxes or by buying low-quality rocks," said a Petrobangla source.
Madhyapara Hard Rock Mining Project has a reserve of around 174 million tons of hard rock and around 1.65 million tons of hard rock could be produced from the mine a year.
It is learnt from various sources that a nexus inside Petrobangla is active in sabotaging the MHMP by causing a series of obstacle to the project and the contractor in order to make Bangladesh dependant mostly on imported stones and rock. Due to such role of some corrupt elements, the MHMP is facing a serious problem.
The opinion expressed in this article is the writer's own and does not necessarily reflect this paper's view. The writer can be reached at e-mail: writersconcept@yahoo.com
It is learnt from competent sources that Bangladesh's annual requirement of hard rock is above 7.9 million tons. Even during recent times, almost the entire quantity of hard rock was coming from India, while some portion was also coming from Myanmar and Malaysia. Before initiating the Madhyapara Hard Rock Mining Project [MHMP], export price for each ton of hard rock was US$ 64. But, MHMP played an important role in putting pressure on the international suppliers in reducing the price up to the lowest level at US$ 22. During the construction of Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge, India and other suppliers could not increase the price, fearing Bangladesh may postpone the construction and wait for hard rocks from Madhyapara.
The MHMP was basically the brainchild of late President Ziaur Rahman, who during his visit to Democratic Peoples Republic (DPR) of Korea requested the then North Korean leader to help Bangladesh in the mining sector. Later, when BNP formed government in 1992 with Khaleda Zia as the Prime Minister, a North Korean delegation visited Bangladesh and finalised the matter thus signing a Memorandum of Understanding. After several months' effort from both the sides, contract for the project was signed and the North Korean Nam-Nam Corporation was entrusted with its the implementation. After almost 16 years of challenging work, Nam-Nam Corporation completed the project and handed it over to Petro Bangla on May 25 last year. Commercial production of the project has already started. It is expected that the project will be able to produce 1.65 million tons of hard rock annually thus saving more than US$ 360 million of foreign exchange. Moreover, according to experts, if the production of the project could be diversified in establishing a plant to cut and produce high quality granite tiles, it would meet the local demand as well as open a new vista of opportunity for Bangladesh in getting a large income from the export trade.
Until implementation of the MHMP, Bangladesh had to depend mostly on import to meet the local requirement of hard rock, while only a small portion of the total requirement could be collected from the river bed in Sunamganj and Panchagarh districts. But, in recent years, India already placed wired trap at the upper flow of water, which stops boulders and gravels from flowing down to the Bangladesh territory. Such attempt by the Indian authorities is taken to stop Bangladesh from getting local supply of rocks and stones so that ultimately the country becomes completely dependent on import. Experts fear, fixing of wired net by India in the upstream of the rivers will ultimately limit the scope for Bangladesh in getting boulders, gravels and various types of small stones as well as coarse ones in the next several years, thus making the country, completely dependent on import.
Mining experts opine that the MHMP could be taken as a model for Bangladesh and similar projects could be implemented within the Northern districts such as Rangpur, Sayedpur, Panchagarh, etc. "Bangladesh needs to have at least three more projects like Madhyapara in order to meet the local demand", said the experts.
International importers and exporters of hard rock became active right after implementation of the MHMP and due to their negative role, even some of the state-owned organisations refrained from purchasing stones from the local source. According to a fact sheet of November 2007, the extracted hard rock of the Madhyapara mine, developed at a cost of TK 1,025 billion, remained piled up at the mine yard everyday as no interested public organisation procured the rocks ignoring the government directives.
The total stock of the extracted rocks from the mine, which started commercial production in May, stood at around 320 thousand tons as the major rock-procuring organisations such as the Roads and Highways, Bangladesh Water Development Board and the Bangladesh Railway were still dependent on imported rocks, said sources in the Madhyapara Granite Mining Company and Petrobangla.
The Chief Adviser's Office and the energy ministry directed the relevant organisations to procure the hard rock of the mine after they had come to know of the reluctance of such organisations in procuring Madhyapara rock. But despite such directives from the Chief Advisor's office and the Energy Ministry, there was no response from these departments in connection with the procurement of rock from the MHMP.
North Korean state-owned enterprise, Nam-Nam developed the mine at a cost of $198 million, of which $120 million was North Korean supplier's credit.
Although the prices of high-quality Madhyapara rocks were lower than those of imported varieties, it was unfortunate that the government organisations were not supporting a public sector project built at such huge costs.
Private-sector organisations do not also show much interest in buying the rocks of Madhyapara.
The price of Madhyapara boulder including VAT is $15.90 a ton whereas the price of imported boulder is around $ 21.60. The price of Madhyapara crushed-stone is US$17.90 a ton and imported crushed-stone costs US $ 27 a ton.
"Service contractors, engaged by the public-sector organisations for their work such as the protection of embankment or construction of road, as well as private-sector organisations depend on imported rocks to siphon off money by evading taxes or by buying low-quality rocks," said a Petrobangla source.
Madhyapara Hard Rock Mining Project has a reserve of around 174 million tons of hard rock and around 1.65 million tons of hard rock could be produced from the mine a year.
It is learnt from various sources that a nexus inside Petrobangla is active in sabotaging the MHMP by causing a series of obstacle to the project and the contractor in order to make Bangladesh dependant mostly on imported stones and rock. Due to such role of some corrupt elements, the MHMP is facing a serious problem.
The opinion expressed in this article is the writer's own and does not necessarily reflect this paper's view. The writer can be reached at e-mail: writersconcept@yahoo.com