The project is likely to be handed over to Petrobangla within the next three or four months.

Namnam, the North Korean company building the mine, was supposed to finish its work within late 1998. It had missed several deadlines for trial runs and schedules to make the mine operational, sources said.

According to Madhyapara Granite Mining Company Ltd (MGMCL) officials, the mine is likely go on commercial production within March this year after the evaluation of its trial run report, which is now underway.

The trial run started on October 10 and ended on December 6 last year but the handover to Petrobangla is being delayed due to bureaucratic complexities and long-term technical evaluation, said MGMCL official sources.

Namnam developed five blocks in the mine and had successfully extracted at least 6,660 tons of granite from each block. Completing trial production from all five blocks separately, Namnam conducted a 24-hour trial run in all the five blocks together on December 6 last year.

The mine formed a technical and machinery evaluation committee to evaluate the actual technical and machinery status following the trial run. The committee is supposed to submit its report before March.

At least 70,000 tons of granite, extracted during the three-month-long trial production, is on sale. The granite produced from the mine during the trial run is better in quality than the imported granite, MGMCL sources said.

Managing Director of MGMCL Abul Monsur Mohammad Azad urged the Roads and Highways Division, Bangladesh Railway and recognised building construction agencies as well as private and public companies to purchase the granite from them.

They have also fixed the price of different types of granite. The price of boulders is $15 per ton, crushed stones $17 per ton and stone dust $5 per ton.

A senior official of MGMCL in Dinajpur seeking anonymity said the mine is ready for commercial production as it has successfully completed the trial runs.

Another source of the mine said Petrobangla's subsidiary MGMCL will take over the mine after ascertaining the actual technical and machinery status and fully-fledged production could start after an elected government takes over power.

The source also said Namnam could be asked to run the mine for a year or so and the government would observe and monitor its performance. If Namnam failed to satisfy the government, the government will then engage another foreign company for granite extraction.

Namnam started development of the mine in 1994 and completed the installation work of the mine in May last year.

The original cost in the first project profile was Tk650 crore. Namnam was given additional time seven times to complete the project, raising the project cost to Tk1275 crore. Repeated delays by Namnam cost the government an additional Tk625 crore, according to sources.

The project was supposed to go on trial runs in June last year but it was suspended due to technical glitches.

The mine has the production capacity of 1.65 million tons of granite each year.

The country annually imports 3.4 million tons. The local production of granite will save the government exchequer $38 million to $58 million a year. The mine has a life span of 45 years.