Titas says situation will improve by 12 noon.
It is now certain that Dhaka city dwellers will be getting no respite from the ongoing gas outage and low pressure until noon on Thursday as the authorities concerned have made it known that the situation will continue till then.
In a media release on Wednesday, Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Ltd, popularly known simply as Titas, made the announcement, alongside offering its apologies for the inconvenience caused to consumers.
Households in the nation’s capital have been in the grip of a gas crisis since late Monday night, which turned worse from Tuesday. The crisis has come at a time when city residents are facing a heatwave as well.
There has been no gas supply in Mirpur, Mohammadpur, Kalabagan, Shyamoli, Agargaon, Dhanmondi, Hazaribagh and some other adjacent areas from Monday night.
Gas supply was partially restored in some areas, while in some areas pressure was low as of Wednesday and Thursday afternoon.
The inconvenience was caused when a gas pipeline got damaged during development work carried out by the Roads and Highways Department in Savar’s Amin Bazar area at around 9pm on Monday.
Residents were found standing in queues before restaurants for food. Not all restaurants in the areas were in operation as they too were caught in the gas crisis.
Additionally, a reduced supply of liquified natural gas or LNG contributed to the worsening situation.
Against a whopping demand of about 3,700 mmcfd gas, the country is getting 2,900 mmcfd every day, clearly showing a shortfall of 600 mmcfd gas.
On Tuesday, 640 mmcfd LNG was supplied to the national gas network, which declined to 570 on Wednesday, leading to the low gas pressure, a Petrobangla official said.
The official working under the LNG Cell of the state-run oil and gas corporation, however, hoped that the supply would get a boost in a day or two, easing the crisis.
Gas outages and low pressure are two major problems Dhaka dwellers face very often, with the crisis worsening every winter.
Consumers also come across problems resulting from the installation and replacement of gas pipelines on a regular basis, mainly because of slack coordination between the utility agencies and development projects.
Titas, the country’s largest gas company, is already facing a shortfall of at least 300mmcfd gas against a demand of around 2,200mmcfd. In the Dhaka metropolitan area alone, the demand is nearly 1,700mmcfd. With 2,865,907 consumers, including 45 power plants, three fertilizer factories, 1,680 captive power producers and 5,279 industrial units, the TGTDCL supplies gas under seven categories to Dhaka and Mymensingh divisions.
The number of household consumers of Titas is currently 2,846,419, while the figures for commercial and CNG users are 12,075 and 394 respectively.
