Coal import from the Indian state of Meghalaya is likely to resume in September following a ban of 15 months.
“The ban has been lifted and all issues relating to coal mining and export have been resolved here. Exporting coal to Bangladesh may begin as soon as next week,” said Moyeen Uddin, a coal exporter in Meghalaya.
Coal import from Meghalaya stopped last year after the National Green Tribunal (NGT) of the Indian state banned coal mining on May 17, 2014 following a petition by an environmental organisation. The verdict was challenged by the mine owners, who appealed with the same tribunal against the ban, but the court rejected their plea on October 7.
“The court directed us to submit royalty fees in three phases within 45 days. After the fees are paid, the matter will be resolved and coal export from India will resume as soon as possible,” said SL Kiram, chairman of Meghalaya Coal Owners’ Forum, when he visited Sylhet on November 30.
However, the situation did not get resolved until this year, when the tribunal lifted the ban on coal mining and export on July 30.
During the time of ban, Bangladeshi coal businessmen imported coal from Indonesia.
However, several coal importers told the Dhaka Tribune that the quality of Indian coal is better than the Indonesian one as it has higher gross calorific value (GCV), which is a measurement of the amount of heat produced by combustion of a unit quantity of a solid or liquid fuel when burned under specified conditions.
“We incurred heavy losses on import during the ban. But things are getting back on track now. We have taken all necessary steps to resume importing coal from Meghalaya,” said Atik Hossain, general secretary of Sylhet Coal Importers' Group.
According to sources, the annual demand of coal in the country is around three million tonnes. Of the total amount, around 1.9m tonnes are imported from India, while the rest is extracted from local mines, including Barapukuria coal mine in Dinajpur.
