Reuters reported that Bangladesh has decided to import coal from neighbor India for another year to save foreign exchange and time.
Commerce ministry official said the ministry has approved a time extension for imports of coal from India with sulphur content of more than 1% until the end of June 2010.
However, the coal will come from India's northeastern state of Meghalaya and cost between USD 45 per tonne and USD 50 per tonne compared to USD 120 per tonne for that bought from Indonesia.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh has reserves of 2.6 billion tonne of coal in 6 northern fields, but finds itself unable to extract it in the absence of a state coal policy.
Source : Reuters