Meghalaya: State to gain revenue and jobs as coal exporter asks government for transit into Bangladesh 

A Garo Hills based coal exporter is seeking a green signal from the Meghalaya government for export coal transit through the Garo Hills border which would pave the way for generation of revenue for the state and provide jobs in the labour profession.

The coal exporter from Garo hills named Georgeman Marak successfully won an auction bid for exporting high grade coal from Jharkhand.

Marak, who is the first coal trader from the state and Garo Hills has successfully win a coal auction bid estimated at close to 50,000 metric tons of coal from the state of Jharkhand that has been given permission by the Coal India Limited for export to Bangladesh.

"I am seeking an application with the Meghalaya government for permission to transport several thousand metric tons of coal through the state and into Bangladesh. If allowed it will immensely benefit the state as the government will get state GST, transport revenue and also create hundreds of jobs in the labour wing as people will be required for loading and offloading," assures Marak.

The first consignment of 3300 metric tons of coal from the successful auction arrived in Assam's Goalpara in a rail rack and will be transported to Bangladesh through Golakganj in Assam.

Marak is also bidding for a second coal auction of Coal India Limited from Assam, this week.

The demand for coal has reached a staggering high in Bangladesh ever since the National Green Tribunal banned rat hole mining, effectively ending all forms of coal extraction in the state that had been destroying the ecology and taking away lives of coal miners inside numerous illegal mines.

While the first consignment of auctioned coal from Jharkhand has arrived by train in Goalpara (Assam) to be transported to Bangladesh through Golakganj, Marak is hopeful that Meghalaya government will permit the coal transit through the state for international buyers since the state tends to gain immensely from it.

Garo Hills is approximately 150 kms from Jogigopa in Assam from where the coal transport begins. It is far nearer than Bhutan through which boulders are exported to Bangladesh.

"Before the NGT ban on coal excavation through rat hole mining, Meghalaya was exporting nothing short of 75 lakh metric tons of coal to Bangladesh and of this Garo Hills alone was around 15 lakh metric tons," recalls the exporter highlighting the significance of the trade in bringing in revenue to the state and employment to its people.