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Feasibility study of sand and gravel extraction from the

Sari River, Sylhet, Bangladesh

Article · July 2013

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FEASIBILITY STUDY OF SAND AND GRAVEL EXTRACTION FROM THE SARI RIVER, SYLHET, BANGLADESH

Suborna Rani Nath and Md Shofiqu1 Islam*

Department of Petroleum and Mining Engineering, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylher 3 l 14, Bangladesh *Corresponding author

Abstract: Jaintiapur Upazila in Sylhet district is famous for huge rocks and sand quarry. In this study, the feasibility of rocks and sand extraction from Lalakhal area and its socioeconomic analysis were conducted. There are huge labors, transports (beats, tracks, etc.) and businessman involved in different stages of rock/sand extraction and its operation. Cost-benefit analysis shows that in every stage of business (e.g., extraction. stocking and transportation), peoples are benefited from the extraction of sand and gravel. Analytical results indicate that every day, approximately 600 ft3 of rocks and 37,500 ft3 of sands have been extracting commercially from the study area whose yearly worth about BOT 27, 866655.0. It can be said that Sand and Rock extraction project 111 Lalakhal area is economically feasible. This project also helps the people of this area to improve their social economic conditions day by day. Keywords: Sand, gravel, Sari river, Jaintiapur sand, rock, boat, Lalakhal, quarry.

1. Introduction Construction sand and gravel, one of the most easy to gel natural resources and a major basic raw material, is used mostly )Y the construction industry. Despite the low unit value of its basic products, the construction sand and gravel industry is a major contributor to and an indicator of the economic well-being of the nation. People have used sand and stone for foundations for thousands of years. The invention of concrete, which was essential to architecture utilizing arches, created an immediate, permanent demand for construction aggregates. Lalakhal is important for its natural beauty from the viewpoint of tourism and the main sources of construction sand with different color, sizes and texture. There are many people engaged to collect the river-born sand and gravel from the Sari river channel. The blessing of the Sari river, the economic condition of the local people of the area is being gradually increased. In the economic point of view, it can be seen that the construction sand and rocks are being used in various sectors of our county. So our country is being benefitted by these natural resources. However, all most no systematic scientific research works yet to be done from the economic point as well as social benefit. In this paper, we aimed to- i) economic feasibility of sand and gravel extraction, and ii) social and environmental impact due to sand extraction from banks and the river channel.

2. Study Area Jainriapur Upazila of Sylhet district located at 40 kilometers north of Sylhet city is bounded by Meghalaya (India) on the north and Kanaighat, Golapgonj upazilas on the south, Kanaighat upazila on the east, Gowainghat and Sylhet Sadar upazilas on the west. The main river is Sure - gain in this area which is characterized by low rounded hillocks with cliffs and scarps.

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The Sari River is flowing within the Jaintiapur Upazila, Sylhet, Bangladesh which lies on the extended part of the southern foothills of the Khasia-Jaintia Hill Ranges of the Shillong Plateau, Meghalaya, India. The Sari River is famous for its natural beauty with crystal clear blue water. The depth of the river is only a few feet. Sari River is also famous for its high-quality concrete sand for construction. The Chartak cement factory is located on the bank of the river. On the way to Lalakhal through Sari River the local people extract sand and sandstones from the river in traditional way and these comes naturally. Here transportation. media is only by boat. The area is featured by east west trending small valleys, giving the landscape a rugged in nature and exposes the maximum number of Formations of Tertiary and Quaternary deposits in the Bengal Basin [Biswas, 1996] The Boka bill formation of the Surma group is well exposed along the Sari river section in the Lalakhal area, Jainriapur Upazila, Sylhet district, NE Bangladesh, where fairly good sections of the Boka bill formation are exposed along the southern & the northern banks of the Sari river near the Lalakhal tea garden (Hossain et al., 2008). The Boka bill formation conformably overlies the Bhuban formation and unconformably overlain by the Tiparn Sandstone Formation (Hossain et al; 2008). The Tipam Sandstone Formation is chiefly consists of silty shale/shale, siltstone, sandstone and dark colored mudstone (Khan, 1978; Khan, 1991; Reimann, 1993).0n the basis of lithology the Formation has been divided into Lower Tipam Sandstone, Middle Tipam Sandstone and Upper Tipam Sandstone. The Lower Tiparn Sandstone consists of yellowish brown to deep brown and occasionally reddish brown conglomerate, sandstone, siltstone and gray to blue as well as dark colored mudstone, Very little amount gray, grayish black, massive rnudstone and clay are also present. The Middle Tipam Sandstone consists of gray colored parallel laminated silty shale

Fig: Location map of Jaintiapur Upazila r11. 92'04' 91'58'

24' 58' 2 4km

JAINTIAPUR UPAZILA

25'_ 00'

25' OG'

92'10' E 91'56'

25'c. 08'

Meghalaya (INDIA)

25° lO'N

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Fig. 2 Rock samples from Sari river

Mudstone

Sandstone

Gravel

Siltstone

3. l Sample collection Some sedi meniary rock samples are collected from the Sari river to analyze their color. sizes, texture and uses. These sedimentary rocks are sandstone. si I tstone, gravels and muds tone (Fig. 2). and used for different construction purposes.

3. Method of Study

alternate with grayish white ripple laminated siltstone and fine sandstone. The Upper Tipam Sandstone is composed of medium to very fine sandstones with parallel laminated to ripple cross­ laminated siltstone. laminated silty shale and shale (Biswas, 1995: Biswas. 1996) The Sari-goyain is a flashy hilly river and it transports a huge amount of sediments from the upstream. These sediments are fine grained and are of fluvial in origin. These fine grained sediments are over bank fines of the large fluvial channels (Miall, 1978; Walker, 1984).

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3.3 Economic Feasibility Analysis The economic feasibility analysis is mainly made for cost-benefit analysis to quantify economic viability to manual sand and rock extraction from the Sari river. However, the economic feasibility analysis is established on the following stages and also given in the flow chart below: l. Perform cost benefit analysis which includes i) identify costs and benefits. ii) Assign values. and

iii) calculate cash flow and return on investment ROJ 2. Development costs, which include i) Project development costs, ii) Labor costs, iii)

Development of sand and rock extraction method, iv) Hand tools purchasing, and v) Development of rock and sand quarry

3. Annual operational costs, which include i) Transportation costs of rocks and sand from Lalakhal to Sarighar, ii) Boat making and repairing, iii) Fuel cost for transportation, and iv) Local Union Tax 4. Annual benefits 5. Tangible costs (Increase sales of rocks and sands. cause reduction of sand and rock extraction costs, increase efficiency of the labors, cause better supplier prices, more effective use of labor/staff time) and intangible benefits (Increase the flexibility of running method of rocks and sand extraction. higher quality rocks and sand, better supplier relations, improve staff morale).

At the back of the boat is a bilge pump or a guy bailing the boat and here for extraction as usual hand tools are used by these labors, such hand tools are Spade, pickaxe, gauze, shovel etc. which arc available here. By visiting the site or quarry it has known that people are using manual hand tools for extracting sand and rocks. there is no risk has been seen. And yet there are no updated methods are being used here Thats '' hy their production rate from quarry is a bit slow. So by applying more update methods such as bringing pump, automatic machine can make their project of extracting rocks more worthwhile and faster. During extraction of sand there is no risk has been experienced. But in the rainy season when the water level rise it may be counted as a bit adverse- condition with respect to workers who extract sand from the quarry. Till now this extraction project is running under hackneyed process & there would not be any necessary update technology to make the extraction of sand more fluent.

Fig. 3 Labors are collecting sand from the quarry, ii) The sand being moved down to the river, iii) Extracting Sand is ferried down from Lalakhal to Sarighat for sale

3.2 Technical feasibility analysis The process of sand extraction involves getting piles of sand from the river bottom, hauling them up into the boat, letting the sand drain a little, and then letting your colleagues push the drying sand into the center of the boat.

.:<

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14. I t- ---- - . ---- 1 5. Determine Return on Calculate how much money the Businessman will receive in I Investment (ROI) return for the investment. lt will make using the ROI 116

~ formula - Calculate the break - even Firstly, find the time period in which the system has greater

point benefits than the cost. This will help us to understand how

L long it will take before the system creates real value for the project. ~-~~----'~----~

Calculate what the value of future costs and benefits are if measured by todavs standards. We will need to select a rate of growth to apply the NPV formula.

-----------·------

Present Determine Net Value (NPV)

Project what the costs and benefits will be over a period of time

Present Net Determine Value

each of the costs and benefits. Even intangibles should be valued if at all possible

Work with businessman. local labors to create numbers for Assign Values to Costs and Benefits

2.

! I I . List the tangible costs and benefits for manual rock and sand extraction. Incl ucle both one-ti me and recurring costs.

Identify Costs and Benefits

3.

Description

To analyze the cost-benefit of manual rocks and sand extraction method in Lalakhal the following steps have been followed.

1"5tep Step I No.

l. Define problem and identify possible options/ alternatives

JL 2. Determine inputs and outputs

(impacts) of each option .LL

3. Value the benefits and costs of each option ('net benefits')

Ji 4. Compare net benefits of each

option

Jt 5 Identify the 'best' option

Basic Steps of Cost-Benefit Analysis:

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Moreover, we have performed a cash flow analysis for sand/rock business. To analyze the cost benefit scenario for businessman, it is important to analyze all the specific information by following cash flow analysis method. Here all the resources come naturally. So the businessman uses only their working capital investment to run their business. There is no manufacturing job here. Now for working capital investments are utilized. It has been estimated yearly total profit and total cost for annual rock extraction for businessman in Lalakhal. Using the following equation return on investment (ROI) can be calculated

Total Estimated costs Estimated selling Estimated net I Esti Estima Produc price (in BDT) profit I ;ate ted v:

"' Lion ft' Breake -r- I ROI v ven

~ point E: -0 per day ~ /ft3 u

c'<l .... Per per day per day per day ';< per year per year per year t.Ll day Ro 600 19608. 7156920 25200.0 I 998000. 5592.0 2041080 28.5 560.23 cks 0 .0 0 .0 % San 26500 600755 2192755 671510. 24510115 70755. 25825571 11.8 373913 els .0 75.0 0 0.0 o 5.0 %

Table 2: Cost benefit analysis of rock and sand extraction from Sari River bed

Considering the unitary business, the overall total cost-benefit for sand/rocks were estimated are also shown in Table 2

! Estimated cost (in BDT) per ft3 Estimated Estimated Estimated I total cost Selling Net profit I

Materials per ft:' pnce per per ft' i I ft:'

I 1 Royalty Union Labor Fuel Rental' I tax cost cost fee

i

Rock ! 0.13 1.33 4.6'05 1.33 0.68 25.68 35 9.32 I ' Sand I - 0.33 6.67 1.33 - 8.33 11 2.67 I

Table 1: Cost - benefit scenario for rock and sand extraction

4. Results 4.1 Economic Feasibility Analysis of rocks Labors and local people in the Lalakhal area are coLlecting rocks and sand from the quarry and river bed. However. they need to pay royalty and union tax to the proper authority for each cubic foot of extracting materials. It is observed from the field visit that there are three stages of rock/sand business are operating. Jn the first stage, labors collect the rocks from the quarry and purchase from the local people at average BDT l 3/ft3. In the next stage the business man procures the rocks from the labors at average BDT 25/ft1. At last, the businessman sells the rocks in different sectors at BDT 35/ft1. Similar business is also operating in the sand business too. The cost benefit for the both cases is shown in the Table l .

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5.2 Socioeconomic conditions of the people of Lalakhal area In Lalakhal area most of the local people engaged in the sand and rock extraction, and ifs selling business. Three types of people are engaged in this type of work. They are: l. Some are labor classes who extract rocks and sand, transport the boats, rock and sand hauling, loading, unloading etc .. 2. Some are involved in collecting local, union taxes, royalty etc. J. And rests are businessman who deals with rocks and sand selling business with the others in Sari ghat. In economic feasibility analysis, we have already seen that the daily profit, annual profit and return on investment which results shows that that the manual rock and sand extraction process by this person is economically feasible. Here the labor classes make a profit on the daily profit basis by extracting rock and sands. So their economic condition is better now after involving this type of work. About I 00- l 50 laborers are engaged in collecting rocks and coarse sands daily and their livelihood, thus depends on the Share-Goya sand in the river. Because we notice that a great working place has been created here. For this reason the rate of unemployed people is also decreasing here. The people who collect union tax and royalty. they also get profit in daily basis. The businessman who invests their money in providing boats, hand tools in this extraction process, they get more profit daily as well as annual basis. About I 0-12 businessmen are engaged in this rock and sand business on Sarighat. And also they get a return on their investment. As the resources of coarse sands in the Lalakhal area is of higher in quality, it has a great national demand in various constructional purposes. Most of the businessman from Sylhet district, Dhaka district,

5. l Environmental impacts As the people extract sand and rocks using hand tools, it is a very simple method with respect to the mine extraction method. So it has no significant environmental impacts. For keeping ecological balance we can see that there is no shortage of natural resources as the resources are corning from naturally. So when the local people extract sand and rock· manually. also this vacant portion is filled with resources naturally indicating high energy balance. condition although diminished at a later period to form sandy-silty-muddy flatly layer. For this there is no imbalance of resources here. On the other hand, as the manual sand extraction by local people are happened in regular basis, so it can be seen that land use area for living people goes down to the river area.

5. Discussion = 560.23 ft3/day

Break even points for rock business is simply calculated as Per day production cost

Break even point for rock business= · unit selling price

BOT 19608 Break even point for rock business=-----

BOT 35ft3

Total estimate profit Return on investment (ROI)[%] = -------­

Total estimated cost BOT 2041080

= BDT7156920 x lOO = 28.5%

Similarly ROI for sand was calculated is 11.8%.

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References I 11. Location map of Jaintiapur Upazila. Banglapcdiu: viewed on 09/2(Ji2013.<htlp://www.banglapedia.or~llT/.l_Oln2.HT\1 l'.21. Feasibility study. Wikipedia, viewed 011 9'11 March 2013.<en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feasibility study. 1.11 Bibliography C Land. The "Muw-Shong Thnit" Near Jainriapur. Journal or the Asiatic Society of' Pakistan. 5. Dacca. 1%0: VD

Krishnaswami, Megalithic Types of South India. Ancient India. 5. Delhi. 1984: S Alam. Megalithic at Iaintapur: A Unique Cultural Evidence i11 Bangladesh. Sylhet: History and Heritage, Sari!' Uddin Ahmed fed). Dhaka, 1999.

141. Sylhct Division. Auther- Positive sylhet vi5:ved on 10'11 March 2013. <hltp://www.sylhe1infonna1ion.blogsp(li.com/ [S]. Introducing Lalakhul. Auther- . wikimapia. viewed on 10'" March ~013. Lalakhal

wik i mapia.orgc-Indiu» Meghaluyae-Nongth ym mai I 61 The Ince 01· Banula: Sari river & l.ulakhal. Sylhet Viewed on .l0'11 March 2013. <http.r/www.luc« cJf

bangla.corn/2012/07/Sari rtwr&L.alakhal.sylhel. 17J. Geological structure of Jaintiapur upazila, Auther· Banglapcdia. viewed on 11';' August 20Ll.

<ht tp://www.hang lapedia.(lrg/HT/G ~0079. HTM [81. Conclave in Sylhet. Auther- Columbia.cdu. viewed on 13"' August 2013

<hi tp://blo!J:s.ci .col umbia .edu/201.~/02/05/com:lave-in-sylhe1-bangladesh/ 191. Shamirna, A. Roy. M.K, Roy, P.1\. Malik. R. and Alam. 13. AKM. 2009. Sequences stratigraphy of the Buka bill

fonnntion, Barounng-Hari river section. Jaintiapur. Northeastern Sylhet. Bangladesh. Vol. 02. No. (J.:1.. August 2009, pp 299- _'l 16. Department of Geology and Mining. University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh.

1101 Alam MK. Hossain AKJ\1S. Khan MR. Whitney JW. 1990. Geological Map of Bangladesh Gcol. Surv. Bangladc.111.Dhabi. Scale l: 1.000.000

1111. Biswa» S. Chowdhury KR. 1995. Provenance of exposed Cenozoic sandstone deposits of Jaintiupur and adjacent areas. Sylhet district. Bangladesh. Bangladesh J Geo] 14. 33-42. [ 111. Biswas S.1()96. Sirucural and tectonic set-up of Jainriapur and adjacent area>. Sylhet district, along with a contribution to the pcuography or the exposed Cenozoic deposits, M.Sc. Thesis. Department of Geological Sciences . Jahangirnagur University. Sa var. Dhaka. 127 p.(Linpublishcd ). 11.\1. Uddin A, Lundberg N 1998. Cenozoic history or the Himalayan-Bcngnl system: Sand composition in the Bengal basin. Bangladesh. Gcol Soc Am Bull I I 0. 497-511. 1141 Ruy. M.K .. Saha.S. Ahmed.SS and Mazumder. Q.H .. 2005. Tide.rnorphologv.li1h-facies,zonation and evolution of a Middle holccne tu present cstuary-Meghna in South central Bangladesh .. lounul or the Geological Society of India. vol.66,p.354-364 1151. Miall. A.D. 1978. Lithofucies types and vertical profile models in braided river deposits: a summery. in: Miall (Editor). Fluvial sedimentology. Cana. Soc. Petol. Geol.. Mern. 5. p. 597-604 1161 Khan. F.11 .. 1991.Geology of Bangladesh. Willey Eastern LtdNew dclhi.lndia, 207pp 1171. Reimann, K-U. 1993. Geologv of Bangladesh. Gcbruder-Bornrragcr. Berlin. Stuttgart, 160 p. 118.1. Ismail. H. Roy, M.K .. Islam, S.U .. Hossain. S. and Hossain. J. 2008. Palcoenvironrnent of the Boka Bill Formation in the BarouunaHari river section near lulukhal. Jaintiupur. Sylhet. Bangladesh. Earth Evolution Sciences, vol.Z, p.3-14 I 191,Ak"ter. M.S. 2003. Sequence stratigraphy of the Boka Bill Formation. Burogong-Hari river section. Juintiapur. Sylhet. Bangladesh. Unpublished M.Sc. thesis report. Department or Geology and Mining, University of Rajshahi. Bangladesh. 1201. Tessier. B. and Gigot, P .. 1989.A vertical record of different tidal cycliues: an example from the Miocene marine molasses of Dighe 1 Haute province, Francel.Sedimcmology, vol.Je, p.767- 776.

6. Conclusion The amount of rock extraction is lower than the sand extraction . But economically rock extraction is more profitable than the manual sand extraction. In overall projects, it can be seen that the manual sand extraction is economically more feasible and also profitable from the proposed area that is Lalakhal in Jaintiapur Upazila. And the sources of sand are unlimited in quantity. According to the finding of the studies, it can be said that if the businessman use modern technology just like bringing pump, automatic machine. the production rate will increase tremendously and the estimated time for the production will be minimized significantly. In this way, the extractors can extract more sand within a short time than their profit will be increased reasonably.

Chittagong district are purchasing a huge amount of fine sand and coarse sand daily from the Sarighat. And maximum amount of rocks and sands go to the Sylher Chattak cement factory. So, maximum constructional work in Jaintiapur and its surrounded area is running based on these sands. For this reason. the necessity of these georesourccs can be easily thought of a great role in socioeconomic conditions of the local people of Lalakhal area.

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