The New Nation - Internet Edition

EVER since hard rock was found at Maddhyapara in Dinajpur, a big scope of import substitution and support for the country's construction and related activities emerged. Thus, when initiative was taken in 1994 to mine the hard rock, expectation grew that production of this rock would be very significant for the national economy. Rocks have been imported mainly from India spending thousands of crores of Taka. The Maddhyapara rocks can be very profitably used by the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) for road building, by the Water and Power Development Board (WAPDA) for embankment construction and the Bangladesh Railway for laying on its tracks. Besides, there are all kinds of extensive uses of hard rocks for construction and related works. It was estimated that with the Maddhyapara mine commercially producing hard rock for supply to various users, the country would be annually saving some 2 crore and 39 lakh US dollars for import substitution annually.

The Maddhyapara project became fully functional from May last year and has been producing about one thousand tonnes of hard rock a day and has accumulated rock at the project site since the start of mining. But nearly all of it remains stockpiled there as there are no buyers notwithstanding that official directives that were issued to different government ministries --likely to use this rock -- to do so with immediate effect. Different government bodies who would be the major users of the rock are sticking to their old habit of importing their requirements of rock. When the ministries were asked to account for their behaviour, they passed the buck to the contractors. After receiving this explanation, the ministries were ordered to include a mandatory provision in the tender schedules that only locally produced rocks are to be used. But months have passed and this specific order, too, is being ignored most irresponsibly and unconscionably. It is still business as usual for the ministries which are allowing contractors to freely import rocks.

But the economy will suffer from such unplanned activities. If this mode of producing rocks at Maddhyapara is allowed to continue with no buyers, then very soon the mining company will have to be shut down. Already, paying salaries to its workers and employees is proving to be difficult as the company presently has no earnings. If it is compelled to shut down then the resources spent so far on this project will be a total waste. The expected saving of national resources from the project will not materialise. The country will have to go on bearing the double liability of draining precious resources on importing poor quality rocks and then building weak and less dependable structures with the same. But superior quality construction is possible by using Maddhyapara's rock. The locally produced rock is also priced considerably lower than its imported equivalent. Therefore, it is high time to take a hard look at this issue from the very highest level in the government.