The state-owned entity has taken the initiative to replace about 5,000 kms of the distribution pipelines, out of 7,000 kms, in the city at the directive of the Energy and Mineral Resources Division, said officials wishing to remain anonymous.
“Initially, about 2,000 kms of pipelines will be replaced with new ones and new pipelines will gradually be installed across 5,000 kms,” said a senior official at the division.
He said engineers at Titas are now busy designing the project. “Once the design is completed, it’ll be placed before the Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry as well as Planning Ministry for their approval.”
The official said around Tk 1,200 crore will be spent on the project to replace 2,000 kms of line.
He said there is also a plan to introduce smart prepaid metres for the Titas Gas consumers which will enable them to recharge prepaid cards without going to any vendor.
About the government’s plan, State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid said the project was taken mainly to check the leakage in the gas pipeline.
He said most of the pipelines across Dhaka city were installed 35-40 years back and those have already become dilapidated.
The state minister said if the pipelines are replaced with new ones, it will check the leakage and reduce the system loss. “This project will check all the illegal gas connections and gas pilferage by illegal users,” he said, adding that they came to know that 150 million cubic feet of gas per day (mmcfd) are being pilfered in Dhaka.
“This was found when the government imports 350 mmcfd of LNG and supplies those to the nation gas network. Various power plants in Chattogram city consume some 200 mmcfd of gas and the remaining 200 mmcfd of gas is being injected into the network of Dhaka city. But it couldn’t be traced where such huge amount of gas is going to,” he said.
Nasrul Hamid said if the new gas pipelines are installed, they could easily trace the gas movement.
He said the Energy Division also asked the Titas authorities to introduce smart prepaid gas metres whereby consumers can pay bill through digital system like bKash from remote location without going to the vending station.
Titas Gas company officials said they have some 13,000 kms of gas transmission and distribution lines in and outside Dhaka city.
Of this, some 5,000 kms were installed about 25-40 years ago and most of those pipes were rusted and have now become risky for a reliable network, said a senior official of the leading gas distribution company with market share of 60 percent.
The Titas Gas company distributes 17,000 million cubic metre (mmcm) for its registered 2.783 million users -– eight government power plants, 36 private power plants, 1,630 captive powers plants, three fertiliser factories, 5,128 industries, 382 CNG pumps, 11,688 commercial consumers and 2,764,247 household consumers.