Bangladesh
Kolkata Coal 3 ships anchor in Pasur river with coal from Kolkata
Dhaka, July 19: Three cargo ships have arrived in Mongla with coal from Rampal Thermal Power Station. On Monday (July 19) morning, three ships named MV Shyamal Bangla, Enamul Hossain and Al Beruni Saikot-2 anchored coal in the Pasur river of the port.
Md. Kabir Faraji, Master of Al Beruni Saikot-2, said the event was inaugurated by Kolkata Port Chairman Binit Kumar on July 3 by loading 1,855 metric tonnes of coal on the MV Shyamal Bangla cargo ship from Kolkata Port. Then on 4 July MV Enamul Hossain and on 5 July MV Al Beruni Saikot-2 loaded coal and on 8 July the three ships left the port of Kolkata.
After that, the coal-carrying cargo ships stayed at Hemnagar for five days via the waterway of Bajwaj-Ghoramara-Namkhana-Baganbari-Mandir in India and faced customs clearance at Antihara in the Indo-Bangladesh border area. Later on Monday (July 19) the ships anchored in the Pashur River at Mongla Port.
Coal imported from India will be unloaded at Rampal Thermal Power Station within three to four days after inspection and payment of duty at Mongla Customs House, said Deputy Director Md. Rezaul Karim.
He said that the coal for this power plant under construction has come, but not for power generation, but for building a colliery. He confirmed that three cargo ships with an initial capacity of 3,752 metric tons of coal have already arrived in Mongla.
Referring to coal as a "dirt", Sundarbans National Committee member Md. Nur Alam said, "The policy for operating thermal power plants is to import high quality coal from Indonesia and Australia, but for colliery, the imported coal will generate electricity."
"Even though it was announced in December this year that the plant would generate electricity, no agreement has been reached with Indonesia and Australia so far," he said.
It is known that the place where coal is imported from abroad for power generation is kept. This coal has been imported from India to build that colliery. This coal is basically called carpet coal. If the carpeting is not done, there is a fear that the coal that will be bought for electricity will be wasted, said the people involved in the project.
