FE Report

The capital city has been facing severe gas supply problem over the last few days affecting the household activities, particularly preparation of food items for Iftar.

People from different parts of Dhaka, including Mirpur, Pallabi, Shewrapara, Kazipara, Taltola, Kafrul, Kollayanpur, Mohammadpur, Rampura and Kamlapur Wednesday said they have not been getting adequate gas supply from the noon to evening over the last few days.

The city's gas distributing company --Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Limited (TGTDCL) -- has admitted the crisis saying it is trying to improve the supply situation.

"Rising consumer growth for unusual urbanisation in Dhaka is the major reason for the supply plunge. Besides, supply pressure is not adequate for cooking stoves in the kitchens mainly because of narrow distribution pipelines," a director of the Titas Gas told the FE.

Kona Islam, a housewife in the Mirpur-12 area in the city said they have not been getting adequate gas for preparing the "Iftar" items from 12noon to evening since the very first day of Ramadan.

"I have been purchasing Iftar items from the shops since the second day of Ramadan as I could not light up the stoves due to inadequate gas pressure," she lamented.

"There has been acute constraint in the transmission and distribution lines in some areas in the capital for long. So, the company is failing to supply additional gas to its distribution lines when the demand is increased during the peak-hours in Ramadan," another Titas Gas official told the FE

Since the Petrobangla is not being able to supply adequate gas, the Titas Gas has been forced to reduce supply to its nearly 1.4 million consumers in the Dhaka city and adjacent districts.

"The gas company is getting 1430 million cubic feet of gas per day (mmcfd) from the Petrobangla against the total demand for more than 1500mmcfd. The inadequate supply is affecting not only the households, also the industries and power generators," he said.

All the operative gas fields in the country are producing about 1960mmcfd of gas leaving a shortfall of over 150mmcfd against the total demand in the peak-hour.