When Barapukuria coalmine in Parbatipur of northern Dinajpur district started operation in 2005, after witnessing years of seesaw progress in project implementation process, it was projected that the per annum production will be one million tonnes for next 30 years. But the prospect is now fading out. In months after the operation started the entire production area (phase 1110) was sealed off along with all the coal extraction machinery. The reason was excessive emission of carbon monoxide and methane gas in phase 1110 in September 2005. Fortunately, all the local and foreign experts and workers could have been evacuated and there was no loss of life.

But, the death of British expert Albert Banes Davis, 62, on April 26 again surfaced the apprehension about the fate of the underground coal mine. The incident immediately did not affect the mine's daily production that resumed on April 17. But this has hampered recovery of huge mining equipment, abandoned in the danger zone of phase 1110 in 2005. 

Davis, a mine ventilation expert, along with Nicolas Sharon Woodburn, 26, both belonging to the mine's British consultant firm IMC, went down the mine at around 8:30 am on the day to implement a recovery plan for the abandoned equipment in 1110 mining zone. Sources concerned said that at one point of a newly developed passage under zone-1109 that led to the sealed off poisonous zone, Woodburn noticed that Davis was missing. Woodburn turned to the mine's communication system and alarmed the stand-by rescue team.

The rescue team rushed to the spot and recovered Davis in an unconscious state. Davis was taken to Saidpur Combined Military Hospital at around 11:45 am, where doctors declared him dead. As per the law, the body of Davis will be sent to England for autopsy and burial formalities. He came to Bangladesh on April 12. The IMC will now investigate the cause of his death. 

State-run oil, gas and mineral corporation Petrobangla, the mother organization of Barapukurial Coal Mine Company Ltd (BCMCL), formed a committee asking it to file a report in this regard within seven days. Petrobangla’s General Manager Muslim Ahmed is head of the committee. Another member of the committee is Petrobangla official Shamsul Alam. Mortoza Ahmed Faruk, Acting GM of Environment and Safety Department of the corporation will act as Member Secretary. The committee visited the mine, talked to officials and workers. They would not comment on the casualty.

However, sources at the BCMCL told the EP that high temperature of water and air at the roadway was responsible for the tragic death of Albert Banes Davis. They said Davis could not be rescued in time as Bangladeshi and Chinese workers did not understand Woodburn’s language. Also, Woodburn lost the way to reach Davis after he could make some people understand that an accident happened.

The sources said that Davis had still sense when Woodburn along with four workers reached him. They said Davis and Woodburn had gone to observe the roadway and roadway of phase 1110 under a recovery plan. The roadway is situated at the depth of 445 meters of the phase 1110. The temperature of air inside the roadway is 39 degree Celsius while of water is 47 degree Celsius. At some places in the roadways accumulated water level reached the waist height. After going down the mine, Woodburn noticed that Davis fell sick.

Quoting a worker who had reached Davis later on, a top BCMCL official told the EP that after Davis fell sick Woodburn soon came out and told some Bangladeshi workers about Davis’s fate. As they did not understand, he tried to inform the Chinese workers. But they also did not understand English. As he repeatedly tried to communicate, some workers understood and they rushed to the spot. In the meantime, the alarm bell was rung up and rescue team along with physicians also reached. The sources said Davis who could not tolerate the high temperature, still had sense. But soon he lost consciousness.

The inquiry team could not talk to a shocked Woodburn as he left Bangladesh after submitting a report to his company IMC. The postmortem of Davis’s body has been carried out. Another autopsy will be conducted in England.

Not only Barapukuria in Bangladesh, the underground coalmines across the world are known as deathtraps. Experts said that Barapukuria is fortunate that not mass casualty took place so far although it was developed in a faulty way. Surprisingly, the mine is running without any manual. They apprehend a major disaster anytime like the one took place in March 2007 in Russia or regularly happening in China.

Only a month back, 110 Russian workers along with a British Consultant IMC expert were killed in an accident at a Siberian coalmine. And China, known as major coal mining country, witnesses death of 6,000 workers every year officially. The unofficial figure is estimated at 20,000. With the latest casualty, the Barapukuria, so far, experienced death of nine people. Before the latest tragedy, the underground mine witnessed the death of seven Chinese workers and a Bangladeshi. Mahmudur Rahman, the former Energy Advisor, was also trapped inside the mine. He and his colleagues were fortunate despite being trapped inside.

For its faulty design and method of coal extraction many called Barapukuria the most hazardous work place in Bangladesh. "The air and working condition inside the mine is now very hazardous even for a healthy man. It is so hot and humid that a few hours of stay underground can make you very ill," said a mining official.

He said: The mine is constantly being flooded with water having a temperature of 48 degree Celsius, which we need to pump out round the clock. There are frequent roof collapses, and the ‘mine's columns’ supporting the roof have developed alignment mismatches.

According to the officials, the hot water phenomenon is new and ‘mysterious’. Mining engineers believe there must be a fault inside the mining area that connects the water bearing rocks with a source of volcanic chamber. The mining experts confirm that as per mine safety rules in Europe and Australia allowable temperature in the underround mines (assuming the proper ventilation air flow is present) is 21-25 degree Celsius. At places, mine temperature up to 29-30 degree Celsius for a very limited time is allowed (maximum 40 minutes). But at Barapukuria the mine temperature has crossed all the acceptable limits with 100% humidity and reached dangerous stage where prolonged staying of the miners may cause death anytime.

The mine has a deposit of about 390 million tons of high quality bituminous coal within 6.68 sq km area, but less than 20 percent of it can be extracted using the underground mining method if handled properly, experts said.

Barapukuria project was approved in March 1992 with the target of its completion by July 31, 2001 at a cost of Tk 887 crore. This cost was pushed to more than Tk 1,600 crore but the contractors have failed to hand over a productive and complete mine even six years behind the schedule.

Sources said, with the bloated price tag of over Tk 1,600 crore under Chinese Supplier's Credit, the mine stumbled due to numerous problems since 1998 because of poor project design and implementation by Chinese company CMC. As a result, the mine's initial target of producing one million tonnes of coal has now come down to 500,000 tonnes (officially 700,000 tonnes), while the mine remains the country's most hazardous work place with alarming degradation of local environment.

Barapukuria officials said that the first major disaster took place in 1998 when the mine became flooded with uncontrollable water inrush from the aquifer (groundwater sources). As the CMC could not handle this problem, it relocated the underground mine's shaft. For the next three years, the mine's development progressed at snail's pace. 

The mining work resumed half-heartedly after 2001 but on September 30, 2005 it faced another blow when there was an alarming rise of gas in zone-1110. The authorities suspended extraction of coal and evacuated all workers, abandoning mining equipment (one of the two longwall complex which costs approximately 7-8 million US Dollars). On October 5, sensing deadly carbon dioxide and burning methane underground in the mined area, miners sealed off an area of 450 meters by 120 meters. More than one thousands percent presence of Carbon monoxide in the breathing air causes instant death.

Sources said this disaster has happened because the Chinese contractor had left highly inflammable coal pits exposed to air since May 2005 and the mining authorities overlooked the matter. Mining norms dictate that coal pits should not be left exposed to air for more than 24 hours as this can lead to self-combustion of coal and emission of gas. 

The mine's work remained totally suspended between October 2006 and April 2007 as the CMC refused to work demanding various payments including one installment of the Supplier's Credit taken by Bangladesh. This suspension also stopped power generation by the 250 megawatt Barapukuria power plant. 

Side by side with resuming mining activities, the BCMCL had asked the CMC to recover the costly mining equipment. As part of it, the mine's British consultant IMC had brought in ventilation expert Davis.

Engineer Muinul Ahsan, a former Director of Petrobangla, said that the state-run corporation does not have proper manpower to look after the environment of the mine. “The consultant of the Petrobangla was to ensure it, but they saw the interest of the contractor instead of us,” he said. 

Apart from faulty development of the mine, there are widespread allegations of financial irregularities. According to Petroangla documents and correspondences, it was gathered that the contractor was not to get the payment of sixth installment before completion of the project. But, the Chinese firm got it by creating tremendous pressure on the Petrobangla.

As per the contract, the CMC was to develop manpower for running the mine. But it did not do so. So, when the firm handed over Barapukuria to the Petrobangla, the state-run corporation had to assign the CMC again as management contractor.

The contract was that the mine will be developed in a way that the annual production will be one million tons. As the mine was not developed in that way, the target was re-fixed at 700,000 tons. Seven months of this fiscal have gone by now it’s clear that attaining the target will not be possible. 

The Barapukuria coalmine was discovered by Geological Survey of Bangladesh in 1985. The British ODA sanctioned US$ 8.0 million for conducting a feasibility study. Wardell Armstrong, a British company carried out the study and submitted its report in 1991. The report said that the reserves of coal in Barapukuria was 303 million tonne. It also said that only 23 to 25 million tonne of coal could be extracted from the mine due to complex geological structure. As open cut mining did not mark present modernization level by that time, the Wardell Armstrong suggested underground mining for Barapukuria. They also recommended to follow Longwall mining method which allowed caving in the mined area as no filling of mine voids were contemplated.

Recently Indian industry giant Tata and several other foreign companies separately expressed interest to take over Barapukuria with Petrobangla as a partner. But, all the companies said that they would go for open pit miming for safety and to secure more production from the mine. A senior official at Petrobangla also said that underground method for Barapukuria was not correct.

Experts said that the government should appoint an international independent consultant before all hope was vanished. Engineer Muinul Ahsan said even if extraction was possible from the first layer of 36 meter thick coal seam, there was every possibility of a disaster during extraction from the second phase. “I think the method of coal extraction from Barapukuria should change after a full fledged review. The best option is the open cut mining,” he said.