Barapukuria underground coal mine in Dinajpur district is the only coal mine in Bangladesh. The coal deposit was discovered at shallow and mineable depth in 1985 by the Bangladesh Geological Survey. However, Barapukuria had to wait 20 years before an underground mine was established in 2005 with the technical and financial assistance of the Chinese government. The main aim of the mine is to supply coal to the coal fired Barapukuria power plant at the mine's mouth. Coal production continues till date to fuel the power plant. By any standard it is a small mine running a modest power plant. But its importance is recognised in north Bengal where a significant power demand is met by the power plant.
Barapukuria mine is not miner friendly. It is overlain by a thick water bearing sand aquifer and underlain by a regime of high heat flow, thus it is popularly known as a mine with "water above and fire below". The sudden and complete inundation of the mine at a point in the past testified to it being vulnerable to being flooded by water. At several coal production areas, the working condition of the miners is very bad with very high temperature and humidity—endangering the health and safety of the miners. However, the underground mine has managed to be free from major accidental events like gas explosion, structural collapse and so on. The recovery of coal from this underground mine is expected to be only about 10 percent of the total coal deposit.
News