Gas meters by October
Prepaid gas meters will be introduced at houses of Mohammadpur and Lalmatia in the capital.Photo: STAR
The Titas Gas company is set to introduce prepaid gas meters at houses in the city's Lalmatia and Mohammadpur from October to check gas wastage and ensure fair payment by the consumers.
“We are trying our best to complete the installation of 4,500 pre-paid meters at houses of the two areas by September under a pilot project and make them functional by October,” said Abdul Aziz Khan, managing director (MD) of the state-owned Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Ltd.
Titas has already set up 2,062 meters in the areas till August 9 under the project that began in May this year with a view to stopping wastage, increasing efficient use of natural gas and ending the default billing culture, said a Titas official.
“We will install prepaid meters in homes of all our domestic consumers gradually. It is a huge task and may take around five years to complete the job,” said the Titas MD adding that the initiative would save around 25 percent gas from being wasted.
According to a Titas official, residential users consume around 160 million cubic feet of gas per day (mmcfd) while the country's total gas consumption is around 2,000 mmcfd gas.
Titas, the country's biggest gas distribution company, has around 15,63,290 customers of which around 15,46,394 are domestic users.
Each consumer will get a smart card against each prepaid meter connection. To keep the meter functional, a consumer will have to insert the card into the meter after recharging it with cash amount at the designated booths or banks of Titas, said the Titas MD.
There is a pointer inside the meter, which will indicate the rate of consumption of gas in a particular month by a consumer.
“The more you consume gas, the more you will have to recharge your card,” Abdul Aziz said adding that consumers will recharge their smart cards on the basis of actual consumption of gas.
It is yet to be decided whether the consumers would be allowed to refill their cards in advance to keep their meters functional for two or more months, he said.
Titas consumers will be able to recharge their smart cards from vending stations at United Commercial Bank's Mohammadpur branch and Rupali Bank's Asad Gate branch, said an official of Titas.
The authority of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet) is supplying the meters to Titas under the Tk 6.71-crore pilot project signed on November 19, 2009, said the official adding that Buet has already developed the software for the prepaid meter.
Besides the pilot project, Titas is going to install 8,600 prepaid meters for domestic connections and 680 meters for commercial units in the capital under an ADB-financed project.
“We will go for tender to select a firm next month to install the meters in some areas of the city under the Tk 55-crore ADB project,” said an official of the project.
Apart from it, Titas has taken an initiative to introduce a project for installing 3 lakh prepaid meters in Badda, Gulshan, Baridahara, Uttara, part of Cantonment, Uttarkhan, Dakkhin Khan and Khilkhet areas in the capital.
“We are preparing a Development Project Proforma to implement the project with Titas' own fund,” said another Titas official.
He also said that they have installed some prepaid meters in households of some areas in the capital on trial basis and observed that if the misuse of gas could be avoided, the monthly bill under a prepaid meter would be around Tk 450 or less in many cases.
A domestic consumer with double burners now pays Tk 450 per month while Tk 400 for single burner.
The home burners have very low energy efficiency and they waste around 65 percent of gas. In addition, many domestic users keep their burners on to save matchsticks.
In light of shortfall in gas supply, the Titas authority had suspended giving any new gas connection only to commercial units from July 21, 2009. The authority also later stopped giving new connection to residential units from July 13, 2010.
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