& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Project launched to plug Titas gas leak

ADB-funded Tk l,000cr scheme also involves drilling of new wells

Sheikh Md Shahidul Islam and Md Fazlur Rahman
The government has finally started implementing aTk 1,000 crore project, first with attempts to check seepage at Titas gas field in Brahmanbaria, five years after the problem was first reported.
Gas worth thousands of crores of taka has seeped out through tube wells and thousands of holes at the gas field but the government-appointed Australian consultants began a study on the situation only two weeks ago.
The four-member expert team from Advanced Well Technologies, Australia is now working to find out the reasons behind the emissions. They are also tasked with making recommendations to Bangladesh Gas Field Company Ltd (BGFCL).
Md Nurul Islam, managing director of BGFCL, said the consultants would review the situation and make recommendations. “Our next course of action will depend on the recommendations, which will also determine how long it will take to plug the gas leakage.”
A senior official of BGFCL last week said the Australian team might submit a report within two months. “We are not sitting idle. The situation has improved a lot.”
The project funded by Asian Development Bank (ADB) also involves drilling four new wells to increase gas production and determine actual reservoir condition and extent of various gas sands, and setting up pipelines.
However, the emissions continue at Shyampur, Anandapur and Bara Bakail villages and also in the Titas River and
Loiska Beel near location 3 of the gas field, the oldest in Bangladesh.
Officials at the gas field could not say how much gas has been discharged through holes and tube wells in Ullages and water bodies under the gas field, which has a capacity of producing 30 million cubic feet of gas a day.
Some new holes have developed in the riverbed and in the fields of Shuhilpur and Majlishpur union, villagers said.
Mubarak Munshi, a former chairman of Uttar Shuhilpur union, said gas emission is a prolonged problem in the area. It has contributed to a decline in fish population and their breeding in the river and nearby Loiska Beel.
Tajul Islam, chairman of Majlishpur union, said gas comes out through thousands
of holes in the riverbed and fields. And, villagers are passing days in panic.
Locals said BGFCL teams inspected Shyampur village many times and examined the water of the tube wells and surveyed land. But no major step was taken yet to save the villagers from a possible disaster.
BGFCL authorities are busy only repairing gas wells while the ground water, contaminated with gas and petroleum, is being emitted out through the holes, they said. And, the holes are getting bigger day by day.
The released gas is polluting the air. The villagers are at risk of health complexities, and a fire may start anytime.
Despite a government ban, some villagers are using gas through pipes for cooking.
On 12 March last year, a four-inch-diameter deep
tube well in Bara Bakail village was exploded following a high gas pressure. Water rose up to 150 feet above the ground. Later, BGFCL engineers brought the situation under control using a bend hose pipe.
BGFCL officials said in the last four years they took various measures to stop the emissions. They have found severalleaks in two wells.
“We have done some work and achieved some success. We have plugged leakage in one of the wells," the BGFCL managingdirectorsaid.
He, however, could not say whether it would be possible to meet the project deadline of 2014, as “these are difficult tasks.”
"We are trying hard to complete the project as soon as possible,” Nurul Islam told TheDailyStar.