Lack of caution to blame, claims energy secretary

The reason behind gas cylinder explosions is not poor quality of the cylinders, but rather the absence of following a proper procedure in using those and lack of caution, an official of the Energy and Mineral Resources Division claimed yesterday.

Abu Hena Md Rahmatul Muneem, secretary to the division, made the remark at a press conference yesterday, on the context of accidents in using liquefied petroleum (LP) gas.

He said that after these issues [of gas cylinder explosions] came up in the media, they investigated the matter and found that the accidents did not occur due to filling the cylinders with LP gas at high pressure.

Muneem said it is said that the quality of the cylinders is not up to the mark, which is not correct. Most of the accidents happened in lower middle-class families who cook in one- or two-room rented flats. Gas deposits in the rooms due to poor ventilation as users often do not turn off the switch and regulators of the stoves, he said.

It has to be made into a regular practice that the regulator and switch of the cylinders are always turned off. The regulator has to be changed at regular intervals, he added.

The pipe connecting the cylinder to the stove will also have to be changed.  Every morning after the doors and windows are opened, users should wait for 20 to 30 minutes before turning on the switch, he recommended.

The secretary said in domestic use, 47,000 metric tonnes of LP gas was used in 2009, which increased by 21 times and stood at 10 lakh tonnes in 2018. At present, the demand is about 30 lakh tonnes, he said.

Muneem said taking the demand into consideration, they have approved 60 companies to supply LP gas, and 17 of those have already gone into operation.