Almost half of the quarries of Maddhapara Granite Mining Company Limited, the country's lone granite stone producer, remained unsold in the last fiscal year, despite achieving its highest production in five years.
This has resulted in a large stockpile of quarried igneous rock accumulating on the mine site.
In response to this situation, the mining company has written to different government offices, urging them to use locally produced granite for their development projects.
Maddhapara Granite Mining Company, a subsidiary of Petrobangla under the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, produces crushed granite in different sizes from its mine located in Parbatipur upazila of Dinajpur.
This granite is highly suitable for a range of construction works.
The mining company currently produces 5,000 to 5,500 tonnes of granite daily across three shifts. The company also has a stockpile of around 0.95 million tonnes of granite in various sizes in its yard, according to an official letter.
This stockpile includes 86,398 tonnes of stone dust, 0.11 million tonnes of 5-20 mm stones, 25,621 tonnes of 20-40 mm stones, 0.28 million tonnes of 40-60 mm stones, 0.26 million tonnes of 60-80 mm stones and 0.17 million tonnes of boulders.
According to the company's annual report, Maddhapara mining sold around 0.57 million tonnes of igneous rock in the 2022-23 fiscal year.
While granite production was suspended for the first three months of the fiscal year, Germania Trest Consortium -- a contractor of Maddhapara mining, produced 1.06 million tonnes of granite in FY2022-23.
This represented the company's highest output since 2019. The report says the mining company only sold half of its production, amounting to 0.57 million tonnes in FY2022-23.
Government and non-government organisations, including the Roads and Highways Department (RHD), Bridges Division, Public Works Department (PWD), Water Development Board (WDB), Bangladesh Railways, different cement factories and other private companies, also reduced their purchases in the last fiscal year, according to the report.
To address the issue of unsold granite, Managing Director of Maddhapara Granite Mining Company Abu Daud Mohammad Fariduzzaman has written to different government offices, urging them to use locally quarried granite for development projects.
The letters say many government institutions are using imported granite, despite the local mining company having good quality reserves of the material.
The mining company pointed out that government procurement rules mandate prioritising goods produced by domestic institutions. However, these rules seem to be disregarded, contributing to the ongoing dollar crisis.
A separate letter has been sent to the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) requesting them to use Maddhapara granite in their ongoing airport projects, including Jessore, Rajshahi and Saidpur Airport runway expansion.
The letter referred to a decision by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) on March 2, 2010, which instructed government bodies to prioritise domestically produced goods in their procurement.
Salataera Begum, general manager (PEP&M) of Maddhapara mining company, confirmed that letters have been sent to various government projects, including the Dhaka-Ashulia Elevated Expressway and Bangladesh Railway.
Tests conducted by the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) have confirmed that local granite meets international quality standards. Besides, tests conducted in Singapore have shown satisfactory results regarding the Alkali-Silica Reactivity of Aggregates in the granite.
Maddhapara granite has already been used in key projects such as the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant, Padma Bridge Link Road, Hatirjheel development, Mirpur Cantonment Link Road, Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport runway extension, Banani Flyover, Bangabandhu International Conference Center and Begum Rokeya University.
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