Gas supply in Dhaka, nearby areas to improve in a day or two: Nasrul

Gas supply in Dhaka and nearby areas will improve in a day or two, State Minister for Power, Energy, and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid said today (21 January).

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

He said both the 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 the gas supply experiences some problems during the winter.

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

Nasrul Hamid said only consumers in Dhaka and adjoining areas use pipeline gas, while others use LPG.

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

The state minister also said the government has a plan to install gas metres for all consumers in the next 3 years.

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

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

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

But the gas crisis was not fully resolved.

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