In 1968. when natural gas was first on offer for domestic use in Dhaka city, a superstition ran high among Its inhabitants — cooking food on a gas burner could cause gastric ulcer.
Workers of Titas Gas Trans mission and Distribution Company Limited (TGTDCL). the introducer of the service in the city, then iiad to go from door to door to convince people to take up its services.
Prominent litterateur Shaw-kat Osman was the first city dweller to break the circle of superstition when his residence was connected with this invisible burning power.
The history of the use of natural gas as a source of energy and feed stock in Bang ladesh. however, dates back to early 60's Haripur Gas Field in the district of Sylhet. discovered in the year 1955. came into commercial production in 1961 with the supply of gas to Natural Gas Fertiliser Factory at FenchuganJ.
The Chhatak Gas Field discovered in 1959 was brought into commercial production with commencement of gas supply to Chhatak Cement Factory in 1960 by a 12 mile long transmission pipeline.
This came as a relief to a country where rapid deforestation was taking place because a fast growing population had been using wood as the only fuel to meet their household requirement.
And the TGTDCL first went into operation with the commissioning of gas supply to Siddhirganj Thermal Power Station on April 28. 1968 following the discovery of Titas Gas Field in Brahmonbaria in 1962.
The TGTDCL. incorporated as a public limited company on November 20. 1964 is responsible for distribution of gas in the city of over seven million.
Since the inception of Titas gas in 1968. the expansion has been remarkable as today some 3.69.715 holdings benefit from the services in the city, of which 3.64.585 are domestic. 4.344 commercial. 768 industrial and 18 seasonal business subscribers.
The managing director of the TGTDCL Major (retd) Muqtadir All said the daily requirement of natural gas in the city now varies from 150 to 170 million cubic feet.
Initially, when the gas lines
were set in different city areas it was done to meet a much lesser demand. Today, the company has a maximum ca parity to supply 125 million cubic feet gas pre day. leaving a considerable vacuum in the supply.
Moreover, the number of customers in the city is rising by about 20.000 per year.
In many areas of the city this causes low pressure in lite lines and household users of natural gas frequently com plain that with that low pres sure they cannot even meet their day to day requirement.
The Managing Director pointed out that the company's domestic sector has been a losing concern for them
"We offer the service to each domestic user assuming that some 85 cubic feet of gas would be spent monthly, therefore the price is fixed at Tk 250. he said.
In fact, he added that on an average.' more than 100 cubic feet is used by each domestic consumer every month.
Some alleged that this is due to widespread misuse of the fuel on part of the subscribers. In some cases, subscribers sublet their gas burners to families without the facility charging Tk 30 to 40 per month.
An official of the TGTDCL said that in this way some subscribers earn three fold more than what they pay to the company. This practice, it was alleged, is quite rampant in different colonies of the city.
In the city, system loss of the company stands at below 7 per cent, and some Tk. 17 crore is now outstanding to the subscribers, said the Managing Director.
The total yearly income of the company was Tk 7942.707 million in 1993-94. while the operational expense was Tk 7390.46 million.
In response to a query about whether meters would be installed in the domestic sector the Managing Director of the TGTDCL said that the company had no such plan as he thought, it would require more manpower, therefore. Increasing the scope for more corruption. •
About the recent gas accidents In the city, officials of the company said that the government has taken up a massive awareness campaign to
educate the users of the natural fuel.
Experts felt that many gas pipelines in the etty are faulty and this is due to assignment of incompetent contractors by the TGTDCL to do most of the domestic gas connection related work.
A committee has recently been formed by the gas supplier to set a new guideline on issuance of contracts.
A high officials of the TGTDCL pointed out that the city of Dhaka has been growing too
haphazardly. Planning has been almost non-existent and the streets are too narrow to do a proper development work.
Moreover, the official said that industries, the big consumers of natural gas. should not be allowed in lhe city. Instead. they should be encouraged to settle in an area where fuel facilities are purpose-built — such as Mymensingh.
We are unable to plan." said an official of the TGTDCL. " because we have no idea of the city planning."