Madhyapara hard rock mine in Dinajpur is beleaguered with loss. Belarus based contractor firm, Germania Trest Consortium, GTC, claims that rock extraction is hampered due to negligence of mine authority.
That’s why rock cannot be extracted as per the agreement, they allege.
Refuting complains managing director of the mine, engineer SM Nurul Aurangzeb, said: “a probe committee is working on this.”
In addition, there’s a lot of other issues which cannot be divulged without the presence of higher authority, he added.
GTC says, ten months ago, an investigation committee formed by Petrobangla made recommendations to extend the agreement which is being disregarded by the managing director of the mine.
As a result, the distance between the construction company and the authority is widening, alleged the firm.
Mine sources say that rock extraction began at Madhyapara from 25 May, 2007 and, initially, rock between 1800 and 2000 tonnes were extracted.
However, this amount declined to 500 tonnes in 2012, resulting in a loss of almost Tk200 crore in the last six years.
To turn the mine into a profitable enterprise and increase production, Petrobangla signed an agreement with Belarus based construction firm, GTC.
An agreement to extract 92 lakh tonnes of rock till the year 2020 was signed for $ 17 crore 19 lakh.
GTC began work from 20 February 2014.