The government has entrusted the state-owned Power Development Board (PDB) to search out potential coalmines abroad, arrange their taking on lease and bring in the mineral resource for electricity generation within the country, a top government official said.

“We have started looking for coalmines abroad to explore the possibility of taking those under long-term lease agreements as we will require a large quantity of coal,” PDB Chairman ASM Alamgir Kabir told the FE Friday.

He said the government has a plan to generate around 4,500 megawatt (mw) of coal-fired electricity by 2015.

The tender evaluation of four coal-based power plants to generate around 1,900 mw of electricity is now in progress, he said.

Installation process of a 1,320mw joint venture coal-based power plant by PDB and India s National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has also progressed well, while a fresh tender will be floated to build another 1,320mw coal-based power plant, said the PDB chairman.

Besides, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is now at the last stage of finalising a coal sector master plan to help streamline the use of coal for domestic electricity generation.

Besides, the government has a mega plan to generate over 10,000 mw of electricity from coal-based power plants by 2021 under its Vision 2021.

Officials said the country will require over 50,000 tonnes of coal daily for electricity generation from the planned coal-based power plants from 2015 and the requirement will double by 2021.

But the countrys local coal production from the state-owned Barapukuria coalmine stands at a meagre amount of 3,000 tonnes a day and the production is also disrupted very often due to periodic workers unrest.

The idea of taking foreign coalmines on lease was first initiated by the Barapukuria Coal Mining Company Ltd (BCMCL) several months ago.

“In clear appreciation of the need for meeting the fast-growing demand for coal to generate electricity, we have suggested to the energy ministry to consider taking some overseas coalmines under lease arrangements, to meet the future requirements,” the managing director of the countrys loan operational coalmine in Barapukuria, Md Quamruzzaman told the FE Friday.

The BCMCL has proposed for coal outsourcing to ensure that electricity generation from the planned coal-based power plants is not hampered due to any coal shortage.

After getting the proposal, the energy ministry has taken the initiative to search out potential coalmines abroad for possible “leasing” arrangements with the PDB, which will ultimately purchase coal for electricity generation.

Officials said the government is eyeing coalmines of the Philippines, Indonesia and South Africa for taking lease.

Energy experts have endorsed the government plan about outsourcing coal supplies as a short-term solution to meet the immediate demand, especially when extraction of coal from domestic mines is facing problems.

“The government can rely on foreign coal to generate electricity up to 5,000 mw up to the maximum,” said Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) Professor Ijaz Hossain.

But to generate electricity beyond that capacity, the government will have to explore and extract the coal from the local mines, he said.

Countrys infrastructure especially, the port facility and transportation, will not make it possible to handle a heavy quantity of imported coal, he noted.

Besides, it will always be cost-effective to use local coal, he added.

The country has around 3.0 billion tonnes of coal reserves in five discovered coalmines.