BANGLADESH

The newly-formed specialist committee on coal extraction has held its first meeting.

The committee will prepare a report and submit it to the energy ministry in four months, committee head and former Petrobangla chairman Mosharraf Hossain said after the meeting on Wednesday.

The government formed the 15-member committee on Sept 8 to prepare a comparative financial analysis of coal extraction's profit and loss and of water management.

It will also recommend procedures to properly compensate and rehabilitate the people, who will have to give up lands to make the way for coal mining.

About the much-debated issue of mining method, Mosharraf said: "We're considering underground mining and open-pit mining as options."

The present committee is the second one formed by the incumbent government on coal issue. The first committee, headed by energy secretary Mohammad Mezbahuddin, was formed in April 2010.

That first committee had prepared a draft coal policy and published it on their website on Oct 2010 for public opinion.