Progress too slow

Titas Gas Company's target to install some 200,000 prepaid meters in Dhaka city is unlikely to be achieved within the timeframe of December 2018 due to leakages in service lines and faulty connections.

A top official of the Titas Gas Prepaid Meter project said these meters are very sensitive. "These won't work if there's any leak either in service line or in household connection. So, we've to suspend installation of the prepaid meters at those faulty connections." 

State-owned Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Ltd undertook the project, "Installation of Prepaid Gas Meter", in 2013 for initially installing 200,000 meters at household connections in different areas, including Gulshan, Banani, Baridhara, Bashundhara, Badda, Tejgaon, Cantonment, Kafrul, Khilkhet, Uttara, Mirpur and adjacent areas in the city.

The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) approved the project involving Tk 712 crore fixing the project completion period between January 2015 and December 2018.

"But three-fourth of the total time was lost in red-tapism well before the start of the project," said an official.

Finally, he said, Titas started installing meters on September 17 last year, but started facing problems shortly afterwards.

Officials said when Titas started the installation work, it found many of its service lines, which were laid underground from main gas lines in the streets to the consumers' houses, are faulty. It also found the lines connected to gas ovens are leaked.

Officials said 13,174 meters were installed in three months and 10 days until December 26, 2017 although the plan was to install 23,000 meters during this time.

Therefore, in 40 percent cases, the Titas Gas Company Ltd could not install meters due to faulty lines.

Contacted, Titas Gas Prepaid Meter Project Director Fazlur Rahman admitted the problems and said they have sent letters to the consumers concerned asking them to fix the leaks with the help of Titas.

"But response from the consumers' end is very poor. Some 400 letters were sent but we've received very little response," he said.

Moreover, the Titas-appointed contractor's  inadequate manpower has contributed to the delay in implementation of the project, according to official sources. 

"Toyokeiki Co Ltd, the selected contractor, was asked to increase its manpower, but they look reluctant. It makes the situation critical causing further delay in the project work," a Titas official said preferring anonymity.

Besides, allegation runs rife that local sub-contractors of the project are taking additional money from consumers if any leak is found in their gas connections during the meter installation.

Over the slow progress of the project, State Minister for Power and Energy Nasrul Hamid said he is not very happy with the performance of the Energy Division.