Barapukuria Coal Scam: ACC quizzes eight officials

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) yesterday interrogated eight accused employees of Barapukuria Coal Mining Company Limited (BCMCL) in a case filed over the Barapukuria coal scam.

The case was filed with Parbatipur Police Station in Dinajpur on July 24 in connection with disappearance of around 1.45 lakh tonnes of coal worth around Tk 230 crore.

The six-hour quizzing was held at the commission's office in Dhaka's Segunbagicha from 9:30am to 3:30pm, said ACC Deputy Director Shamsul Alam.

The accused BCMCL officials are: Abu Taher Md Nuruzzaman Chowdhury, general manager (mine operations); AKM Khaledul Islam, deputy general manager (store department); Md Morsheduzzaman, deputy manager (maintenance and operations); Md Habibur Rahman, deputy manager (production management); Md Zahedur Rahman, deputy manager (mine development); Satyendra Nath Barman, assistant manager (ventilation management); Syed Imam Hasan, manager (security); and Zobayer Ali, deputy general manager (mine planning operations).

After the interrogation, the accused walked out from the interrogation cell one after another, but declined to make any comment over the interrogation.

An ACC official said they interrogated the officials on different matters relating to the coal scam. “We'll then tie up pieces of their statements to find out the gravity of the corruption,” he said.

Eight more persons accused in the case, including former managing director of BCMCL Habib Uddin Ahmed, are scheduled to be quizzed today.

BARAPUKURIA POWER PLANT SHUT DOWN AGAIN

Meanwhile, one of the three units of Barapukuria 525MW Coal Fired Power Plant in Parbatipur upazila of Dinajpur was shut down yesterday afternoon, after operating for eight days on ad-hoc basis.

“We shut it down at 3:05pm on Tuesday,” said Abdul Hakim Sarkar, chief engineer of the plant which is operated by Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB).

There are three units of the plant able to generate 525MW power combined.

The power plant, which had been supplying around 380MW power to national grid on a daily average, was shut down on July 22 due to shortage of coal soon after the disappearance of 1.45 lakh tonnes of coal from the stockyard of Barapukuria Coal Mining Company Limited, which was detected on July 16.

To meet increased power demand in the region during Eid-ul-Azha, BPDB decided to restart one of its units for five days to ease public suffering from August 20. They got a supply of 5,000 metric tonnes of coal from BCMCL in the last one month, which was used for operating the plant eventually for eight days, running a 125MW unit at below full capacity, producing between 40 and 60 megawatts per day.

The plant will be restarted again once BPDB gets supply of coal, said Hakim.

On the other hand, resumption of coal production from BCMCL is still uncertain as underground development work is still going on there.

Roadway development of the new coal pocket was completed on August 16.

Coal production of BCMCL was suspended on June 16, said officials. Miners are now shifting the heavy machinery equipment from one pocket to another.

Saiful Islam, general manager (mine operations) of BCMCL, claimed that coal production may resume on September 15. However, miners involved in the task said production may be delayed for another 10 days.

Around 5,200 metric tonnes of coal is required per day if all three units are to be operated, but BPDB never got the required supply from BCMCL before.