Gas supply to improve in Dhaka, adjacent areas in a day or two

State Minister for Power, Energy, and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid today said gas supply situation will improve in Dhaka and adjacent areas in a day or two.

"We hope gas shortage in Dhaka will decrease and we'll see improvement in a day or two," he said while briefing reporters at his ministry.

He noted that both floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs) in the country have resumed operation and the situation is gradually improving.

"However, one of them will undergo scheduled maintenance soon," he said, adding that normally there are some problems in the gas supply during winter.

"But the government has taken measures to increase the supply of LPG as some 80 percent of the residential consumers now use this liquefied gas," he said.

He said only consumers in Dhaka and adjoining areas use pipeline gas while the rest use LPG.

If the industrial consumers are deducted from the total consumers, the number of household consumers will be 25 lakh, he said.

He also informed that the government has a plan to install gas meters for all consumers in the next 3 years.

The country has been experiencing acute gas shortage since the start of the winter season. However, the situation drastically deteriorated when one of the FSRUs experienced a "technical glitch" on Friday.

The FSRU was repaired and put back in operation, which led to a slight improvement in gas supply to Chattogram and elsewhere.

Meanwhile, another SFRU, which was on a 45-day scheduled maintenance, also resumed operation leading to a further improvement in the supply.

However, the gas crisis was not fully resolved.

Many areas in Dhaka, Narayanganj and Gazipur have been experiencing extreme gas crises or low-pressure problems.