Mining at Maddhapara to resume after 132-day closure
Maddhapara Granite Mining Company (MGMCL) is getting ready to resume operations after remaining closed because the imposition of the countrywide shutdown on 26 March.
However the pandemic took a heavy toll on the neighborhood workers, the majority of whom focus on the "no work, no pay" basis.
MGMCL plans to restart rock production on 15 August after remaining shut for 132 days.
"Production will resume within weekly if everything goes according to plans," said ABM Kamruzzaman, managing director of the state-owned rock production company.
But to reopen the company, the neighborhood miners had to try the streets. The shutdown rendered 800 Bangladeshi miners jobless utilized by Germania Trest Consortium (GTC), the contracting company of MGMCL for production, maintenance and development.
MGMCL in Parbatipur upazila of Dinajpur had about 7.5 lakh tonnes of rock in its stock in March, which came down to 1.5 lakh tonnes on 9 August, as the business restarted sales in May.
"We have been demanding reopening of the mine since May," said Khorshed Alam, president of the MGMCL Miners' Association.
The miners used to gather in front of the business's gate and urged GTC to restart rock production in order that they can earn something to feed their own families, he said.
"However the company never paid heed to your call."
On 5 August, GTC allowed 800 miners to return to work thanks to the intervention of local lawmaker and former minister Mostafizur Rahman, Alam said.
MGMCL signed a fresh six-year contract with GTC in September 2013 and the sooner contractor North Korea's Namnam paid the mine to GTC in February 2014.
GTC's contract ended in February this year, nonetheless it got a one-year extension since it failed to reach the prospective of making 9.2 million tonnes of rock.
MGMCL has floated a tender to employ a new company for the mine. However, production at Barapukuria Coal Mining Company Ltd (BCMCL) in the same upazila has continued regardless of the pandemic.
China-based CMC-XMC Consortium, the contractor, kept the mine running by involving its 300 Chinese miners and by keeping away 1,147 local workers. In July, the business opened the entranceway for 450 local miners.
