FROM KERANIGANJ, DHAKA: Bashundhara Group, a leading business conglomerate in the country, is set to launch the country’s first-ever private sector bitumen plant today (February 22).

Bashundhara Group under its new concern Bashundhara Oil and Gas Company Ltd has set up the ‘Bashundhara Bitumen Plant’ at Pangaon in Keraniganj.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal will inaugurate the Bashundhara Bitumen Plant.

State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid, Bashundhara Group Chairman Ahmed Akbar Sobhan, Co-Chairman Sadat Sobhan Tanvir, Vice-Chairman Shafiat Sobhan Sanvir, Managing Director Sayem Sobhan Anvir and Walid Sobhan will be present at the launching ceremony of the bitumen plant.

The plant will be able to produce 850,000 tonnes of bitumen and asphalt annually.

According to a top official of Bashundhara Group, the bitumen plant will have the capacity to produce bitumen grades such as Cutback, Emulsified, Oxidized and Polymer (SBS, Rubber Powder) and customized as per client’s required specifications. 

Bangladesh’s monthly bitumen demand is around 42,000 tonnes while the demand is growing at an average rate of 10-15 per cent a year, sources said.

Around 90 per cent of the country’s bitumen demand of 500,000 tonnes is met through imports. The rest 10 per cent of bitumen is provided by state-run Eastern Refinery Limited (ERL).

Bashundhara Bitumen Plant has also the plan to export bitumen after meeting local demand.

Bitumen is a binding organic material made from the by-products of refined crude oil. It is widely used in construction, primarily as a constituent of products used in paving and roofing.

BDST: 1154 HRS, FEB 22, 2020
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