Sudden gas crunch hits Ctg households
Tapati Rudra could not even start cooking before 11:00pm on Wednesday night. Her two children went to sleep empty stomach.
In fact, the cooking routine of the resident of Chawk Bazar had gone haywire since Wednesday morning as she was getting very low pressure gas supply, that too only for a few hours in the afternoon and late at night.
Homes across the port city have been suffering prolonged gas supply cuts after a compressor of Petrobangla Gas Transmission Company Limited in Ashuganj broke on Wednesday morning due to what officials say was a lightning strike.
The worst hit neighbourhoods are Chawk Bazar, Bakalia, Jamal Khan, Anderkilla, Dewan Bazar, Chandanpura, Askar Dighir Par, Kapasgola, Badurtola, Bohaddarhat, Katalganj, Halishahar, Agrabad, Shulakbahar, Rahamatganj and Ghat Forhadbegh areas, locals said.
Azizul Haque, deputy general manager (distribution) of Karnaphuli Gas Distribution Company Limited (KGDCL), said the crisis would ease soon, but could not say the specific time when the compressor would be operational again.
Meanwhile, residents of Chittagong city have to buy food or cook at ungodly hours.
Anjuman Ara, a resident of Jamal Khan Road, said the situation was frustrating as they did not get any heads up.
“At first, we thought they were working on some pipeline and gas supply was suspended for a short period.
“I cannot even boil drinking water. We are buying everything, even safe water now,” she said.
Salamat Ullah, owner of a restaurant on DC Road, said they had been using fire wood and had to hike prices on the menu to cope with the additional cost.
President of Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry Mahbubul Alam told The Daily Star that the sudden crisis took a toll on the industries in Chittagong as well.
“Production is affected badly. It may ultimately impact the country's export,” he said, adding, “We usually see a drop in gas pressure in winter but this sudden crisis is severe.”
Anupam Dutta, manager (load monitoring) of KGDCL, said as the compressor in Ashuganj was out, Chittagong was getting about 40mmcft less gas from the national grid.
He explained that Chittagong has been receiving less gas than needed for several years.
Ideally, the city needs 400mmcft gas a day, but it has to make do with roughly 240mmcft, he said.
“But after the compressor went down due to the lightning strike around 9:30am on Wednesday, supply of gas from national grid fell further,” he said, “We only got 199mmcft on Wednesday.”
He also went on to add that daily gas production at Fenchuganj and Bangladesh gas fields fell last week by 70mmcft. The two gas fields usually produce 2,750mmcft a day, but the production fell to 2,680mmcft.
“All these matters negatively impacted the supply. Work is going on to repair the Ashuganj compressor and we hope the crisis will ease soon.”
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