Sunamganj Correspondent

Chhatak Cement Factory, the country’s oldest cement plant, has ceased operations due to a severe shortage of gas and limestone.

Established in 1937 on the banks of the Surma River near the India-Bangladesh border, the factory remains idle, struggling to secure essential raw materials.

Now under the Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) of the Ministry of Industries, the factory is gradually rusting despite the completion of its modernisation project.

Sources said BCIC undertook a Tk 667 crore project in 2016 to convert the factory’s production process from the wet method to the dry method, aiming to increase daily production capacity to 1,500 metric tonnes (4.5 lakh metric tonnes annually).

They said the project cost was later revised to Tk 890 crore and, most recently, to Tk 1,417 crore.

Despite 90.7% physical progress and 58.67% financial progress, the factory remains non-operational due to the unavailability of key raw materials—gas and limestone, according to the sources.

As of November 2024, Tk 831.88 crore had been spent on the factory’s modernisation project, titled “Conversion of Chhatak Cement Company Limited’s Production Process from Wet to Dry Method (2nd Revised).”

Although the plant’s construction was completed over a year ago, the lack of a new gas pipeline and failure to establish a ropeway for importing limestone from India have left the factory idle.

The ropeway, which was supposed to transport limestone from the Komorrah Limestone Mining Company (KLMC) in Meghalaya, India, remains incomplete.

While the 11-kilometre Bangladesh portion of the ropeway has been dismantled and sold, the 4.6-kilometre Indian portion has yet to be constructed due to a lack of approval from Indian authorities.

To prevent the machinery from rusting, the factory conducts trial runs every 15 days.

During the 17th meeting of the project’s steering committee on December 8 last year, chaired by Senior Secretary of the Ministry of Industries Zakia Sultana, it was revealed that the project’s timeline and cost would need to be extended further.

The committee proposed extending the project deadline to June 2026 and allocating an additional Tk 300 crore for the construction of a 43-kilometre gas pipeline from Sylhet to Chhatak.

Previously, the factory’s gas supply was provided by Jalalabad Gas Transmission and Distribution Systems Limited (JGTDSL). But the existing pipeline cannot meet the increased demand of the modernised plant. The installation of a new pipeline is pending approval from Petrobangla.

Project Director Abdur Rahman Badsha said the delay in obtaining mining approval from KLMC and the lack of permission to repair or replace the Indian portion of the ropeway have stalled the project.

He also said that the Chinese contractor, Nanjing C-Hope Cement Engineering Group, responsible for the ropeway construction, is awaiting a subcontracting agreement with KLMC to begin work on the Indian side.

Meanwhile, BCIC’s Additional Chief Engineer (Electrical) Kazi Kamrul Hossain said regular trial runs are being conducted to prevent the machinery from rusting.

Once a symbol of industrial progress, Chhatak Cement Factory now stands as a testament to bureaucratic and logistical challenges, with its future hanging in the balance.