INITIATIVES have been taken to test about 1.5 lakh gas risers and several thousand kilometers of gas lines in Chattogram after the deadly Narayanganj mosque AC blast that killed 33 people. Karnaphuli Gas Distribution Company Limited has signed an agreement with a Singapore-based company to test the entire gas line management system. Other gas distribution companies in the country will also start this program on the success of Chattogram. With long-term use, many gas distribution lines in Dhaka and Chattogram has rusted and leaked. The regulator and valve of the old riser are also damaged. But it is difficult to inspect the riser one by one, recover and repair the leak.
In Chattogram, a specialized vehicle will detect as many leaks as there are gas lines between the two sides at least 60 feet when driving on a road. All leakage information will be recorded and shown in the machine monitor. The mobile gas detector car can cover at least 25 kilometers daily. Manual riser testing activities will be resumed before the pilot project begins. Six teams are already formed to operate at different points in the city. Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company recently conducted a baseline survey in its distribution areas and found that 35,000 gas risers out of 5.65 lakh, around 6.2% were leaky. Currently, the company has around 28.66 lakh consumers who are connected to 12 lakh gas risers. Due to poor quality of equipment and unplanned underground installations, pipelines have huge leakages.
In April 2009, the government stopped giving fresh gas connections to domestic units. This prohibition was lifted for a year in 2013. The following year, the energy division again stopped giving new domestic connections. Despite a long pause in giving new household connections, the number of such connections has been increasing gradually due to illegal connections. Titas Gas has a 13,138 km pipeline network in Dhaka, Gazipur, and Mymensingh. Some pipelines have huge leakages due to lack of repair. The gas distribution companies rightly took the initiative to inspect the leakage and subsequent repair of the line.
