Gas supply resumes a day after disruption

Gas supply resumes in Dhaka and its adjoining areas this morning, over 26 hours after the supply was partially halted due to a technical glitch at Ashulia gas station of the state-run Gas Transmission Company Ltd (GTCL).

The gas supply resumed at 10:30am, Engineer Md Enamul Huq, manager (Emergency Gas Control Center - North) of Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Ltd, told The Daily Star Online in the morning.

As the supply line was empty, the gas will be transmitted to different areas gradually, Enamul Huq said over phone.

Gas supply to tens of thousands of households, factories and other establishments in the capital and its adjoining areas came to a complete or partial halt yesterday morning because of a technical glitch in the gas network, inflicting untold sufferings on the city dwellers.

Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Ltd did not cut off the gas supply without prior notice.   

“We could not notify the customers about it beforehand because it took us past midnight on Friday to make preparations for the repair work,” said M Kamruzzaman Khan, director of operations at Titas Gas. “We communicated with the customers on Saturday morning.”

Titas Gas used TV scrolls and text messages to notify the customers about the disruption.

WHAT WAS THE TECHNICAL GLITCH? 

A valve went out of order at the Ashulia gas station of the GTCL, resulting the disruption.

Clients of Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Ltd in Ashulia, Savar, Aminbazar, Gabtoli, Mirpur, Paikpara, Pirerbagh, Kalyanpur, Shyamoli, Ring Road, Mansurabad, Kadirabad, Mohammadpur, Lalmatia, Dhanmondi, Azimpur and Hazaribagh woke up to the sudden disruption, as there was no prior announcement from the state-run utility company.

The GTCL, which carries natural gas to the national grid, fixed the problem by replacing the valve.