Anisul Islam Noor :
The ongoing gas crisis in Dhaka has prolonged and affected fresh areas in this month, said Titas Gas Distribution Company’s officials blaming cold wave.
The residents of the city and its adjoining areas have been suffering from shortage of gas in cooking which continues for around 10 to 12 hours a day.
The low pressure of gas is acute especially in the first half of the day. For this, the city residents cannot prepare breakfast and lunch, to the utter inconvenience.
Complaints of low pressure began to come from the second week of January from old Dhakka, Malibag, Rampura, NewEskaton, Razabazar, Kathalbagan, Baksybazar, Farmgate, Indira Road, Jatrabari and Gendaria and parts of Mohammadpur, Mirpur, Kalabagan, Kanthalbagan, Jatrabari, Khilgaon, Bashabo, Banasree, Badda, Gulshan and Uttara.
The new areas are Banasreee, Baridhara, Bashundhara, Uttara, Tongi, Savar and Nobabganj of Dhaka.
Kuhely Begum, a resident from old parts, said that she had to prepare breakfast for her family by 6:30am and wait until 3:30pm for preparing lunch as the burners received virtually no gas supplies during the period.
Elderly people and children were suffering the most as the warm water they needed could not be provided for lack of gas, she said.
She also expressed her dismay at the government’s latest move to raise the price of natural gas when it failed to ensure uninterrupted supply.
Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Managing Director Mir Mashiur Rahman on Saturday told The New Nation that the country’s largest gas distribution utility supplied 1,600 mmcf per day to 1,650 mmcf against a demand for 2,000 mmcf per day.
Recent cold wave worsened the situation due to rise of demand for natural gas for heating water and due to ‘condensate problem’ in the gas transmission and distribution lines, he said.
Director Operation Engineer Ali Ashraf told the reporter that gas consumption has increased by about 20 percent due to cold weather and in some areas users increase out of gas supply line’s capacity, are reasons of short supply of gas.
Residents of Gazipur Narayanganj, Tangail, Comilla and Chittagong are also reported that they were experiencing severe short supply of gas.
Now approximately three million domestic users consume around 300 mmcfd gas in the country, sources said.
Officials of the gas distribution utilities attributed the shortage to increased demand and rapid fall in temperature.
Business bodies, however, claimed that they were getting better gas supplies at factories and CNG filling stations than previous years as the government suspended gas supplies to the fertiliser factories before winter to increase the supplies to the industrial units and CNG stations.
Out of six fertiliser factories, the government suspended gas supplies to four, which increased gas supplies by more than 100 mmcfd.
Bangladesh CNG Filling Station and Conversation Workshop Owners’ Association General Secretary Farhan Noor said that they were still experiencing shortage of gas supplies, but the magnitude of sufferings was lesser than previous years.
The country’s demand for natural gas was more than 3,700 million cubic feet per day while Petrobangla, the state-run Oil, Gas and Mineral Resources Corporation, could supply less than 2,700 mmcfd.
Leader of right groups and experts said, authorities of Titas gas are taking full charge from the consumer end of the month though they cannot supply enough gas in the lines.
Talking with The New Nation Energy experts Professor Shamsul Alam, who is also energy adviser of Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) asked to Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) to take necessary action for ensuring consumers right.
It totally unethical and violation of consumers’ rights that Titas gas is taking full bills of gas at the end of month, without supplying gas in the cooking hours, he said.
