Granite mining in Tk 565cr loss
State-run Maddhapara Granite Mining Company has run up a loss of around Tk 565 crore, mainly due to two contractors hired back-to-back failing to meet their extraction targets.
Moreover, a new contractor is yet to be appointed despite the end of the tenure of the last one.
Granite is used in buildings, bridges, pavements and monuments while its polished slabs and tiles are used in countertops, tiles, stair treads and many other design elements expressing elegance and quality.
The Maddhapara company, which runs under Petrobangla, had first hired North Korean entity Nam-Nam which started developing the mine in Parbatipur upazila of Dinajpur in 1994 and began granite extraction in 2007.
Under the agreement, the company was to bring out 5,500 tonnes of granite daily.
Instead, it generated around 900 tonnes a day on an average, yielding just 20 lakh tonnes in six years operating single shifts instead of three.
Afterwards, Germania Trest Consortium was hired in September 2013 for a fee of Tk 1,400 crore alongside a 12.5 per cent cut on all extracts.
The condition was that it had to extract at least 9.2 million tonnes of granite in six years alongside developing 12 stopes or large underground rooms.
The company attained 40.84 per cent of the extraction target, for which it was paid its share alongside 52 per cent of the fee.
The company cited production halts in three periods for failing to attain the target, including delays in equipment delivery, equipment failure and the pandemic shutdown.
The contract ended in February 2020.
On February 26 last year, the Petrobangla company floated a tender in newspapers to hire a suitable contractor. But the date was deferred six times for the pandemic.
Some 13 companies have applied for the job and completing the process will take over two months even if everything is done on a priority basis, officials said.
Meanwhile, the contract with Germania Trest Consortium has been extended till September 2 this year. Under the new agreement, it has to extract 1.1 million tonnes of granite.
Officials who have dealt with the mine's operations, including a former managing director, say the country would continue to incur losses if a qualified company was not provided the contract.
Abu Daud Md Fariduzzaman, managing director of Maddhapara Granite Mining Company, refused to make any comment over the latest tender.
But he did state that everything would be conducted as per the associated rules.
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