A large part of Dhaka city is in the grip of a severe gas crisis and pressure in the pipeline now too low to cook during the peak hours in the morning.
“The demand for gas increases during winter season. Supply suffers due to condensate in pipe lines. There is no equipment to clear this condensate from the supply end,” Md Nowshad Islam, Managing Director of Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Ltd, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
He said the main problem is the number of illegal connections which puts immense pressure on the pipelines thereby causing the demand-supply imbalance.
In the capital, there are pipes with widths of one to 1.5 inches which cannot bear the necessary pressure of gas flow, says an official.
Most residents in the affected areas are not getting even one-fourth of the normal supply of gas throughout the day.
A couple of factors – production-demand mismatch and thousands of illegal gas connections – are primarily responsible for the present state of gas supply. In addition to the supply shortage, there is a problem with distribution lines in the areas hit by gas crisis. Supply lines there are old and narrow and need to be replaced immediately.
Titas Gas has around 1.55 million residential clients and distributes around 1,700 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) against a demand of 2200mmcfd, officials said.
Hundreds of residences in Mohammadpur, Tejgaon, Jatrabari Shewrapara, Kafrul, East Rajabazar, Mirpur, Pallabi, Kazipara, Taltola, Shyamoli, Khilgaon and Malibag are suffering, with locals having to suspend domestic activities for almost half of the day.
According to Petrobangla, the current demand of gas in the country is 3,300mmcfd, while production stands at 2,700mmcfd.
Halima, a resident of Mohammadpur, said her house remains out of gas supply for about seven hours every day from 9am. “Gas supply in our area has been woefully low between 8am and 5pm every day for the last few days,” she said.
Runa Yasmin, a resident of Kazipara, has to wake up at 5am to prepare breakfast and lunch for her family. Her family expenditure had increased as all the meals now have to be cooked in a kerosene stove.
The low supply of gas has also hit the CNG stations in the capital. Petrobangla officials admitted that a fall in gas pressure have created transmission and distribution problems in some areas.
Some owners of the CNG-filling stations said they were being forced to shut down because of low pressure, which results in long queues of vehicles and traffic jam in the adjacent roads.