The gas supply in entire Mirpur and adjoining Shewarapara Kazipara, Agargaon, Mohammadpur, Kalayanpur, Sheymoli and Dhanmondi came to a halt following a fire incident at a gas pipeline at Shewarapara in the city.

Titas Gas managing director Ali Mohammad Al Mamun said an underground gas pipeline caught fire at Shewarapara. It exploded during sewerage line installation works by WASA.

The workers of the WASA contractor carelessly displaced the gas pipeline while installing a 3.6 feet sewerage pipeline.

“This led to a fire incident at the gas pipeline at about 4:45am on Friday,” Mamun told UNB.

He said Titas Gas engineers rushed to the spot along with fire service.

The gas supply in the areas was shutdown from the District Regulating Station (DRS) to facilitate repair, he said, adding that it took about five hours to fix the line.      

Meanwhile, residents of greater Mirpur, Dhanmondi  and Mohammadpur had to suffer a lot due to disconnection of gas lines for nearly eight hours on Friday.

Sources at the Fire Service and Civil Defence headquarters Control Room said the fire occurred around 4:41am.

Two fire fighting units rushed to the spot and doused the flame around 4:54am, said Lima Khanom, duty officer of the fire service headquarters control room. No causality was reported.

Masuma Akhter Rimi, an officer of a private company, and also a resident of Mirpur-7 Mallicka Housing, said like other days, she went to kitchen to make breakfast but found that there was no gas on the supply line.

Finding no alternative, she had to cook with a rice cooker, she said.

Ratan, another  resident of Kazipara, said they ended up cooking khichuri in a rice cooker.

Long queue was seen in local restaurants in areas where gas supply was stopped.