NEW DELHI, Dec 26: Ban on rat-hole mining in Meghalaya has not just affected domestic industries but also cement and other businesses in Nepal as well as Bangladesh, which shares the border with the hill state, reports said.
President of the Federation of Nepal Brick Industries, Mahendra Bahadur Chitrakar, said that the import of coal from Meghalaya has dropped to almost zero, which has affected cement and brick kiln industries in the neighbouring country.
Brick factories in Nepal import 75 per cent of their coal from Meghalaya, he said.
Due to India directing their coal supply to internal industries because of the ban on coal mining in Meghalaya, domestic brick manufacturers were compelled to import coal from third countries including the US and Indonesia, he said.
But the prices are more than double, and the factories are fully dependent on coal imported from Meghalaya, he added.
With the rise in coal price, fuel price and hike in labour cost, bricks will become dearer by 25-30 per cent in Nepal, Chitrakar said.
According to the federation, there are around 1,250 brick factories in the country directly employing around 3.5 lakh people.
The international media reported that China and India have largely solved their domestic coal supply issues but increasing the output is yet to be reflected in the price of seaborne supplies in Asia.
Nepal imported coal worth Rs 2.99 billion from India in the first four months of the current fiscal year, increasing by 149.2 per cent in the same period last fiscal year 2020-21.
