Barapukuria Coal Mining Company Ltd (BCMCL) on Saturday made a new record by extracting the highest quantity coal in a day since it started operation in 2005.
The mining authorities feared that the coal yard might be filled up within next month, creating a threat of 'spontaneous combustion' of coal if two units of the technically-flawed 250megawatt (MW) power plant is not run continuously.
The mining company extracted 4,475 metric tonnes (MT) of coal from Coal Phase-1104 on Saturday. Miners have been extracting coal from the phase at the pace of 4,100MT coal per day for the last 10 days, mining officials said.
The two-unit power plant, commissioned in December 2005, seldom ran except for the period of June and July 2006.
Since January 2008, the power plant was shut down 11 times either for technical glitches or scheduled maintenance.
The two units consume 2,000 tonnes of coal daily if they operate properly.