Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company has warned that large swathes of Dhaka and Narayanganj may experience a weeklong disruption or complete outage in the gas supply due to repairs to its distribution line.
Titas issued a notice on Saturday stating that repairs to its pipeline will start on Sunday and finish on November 12.
Work at mills and factories in the Dhaka, Narayanganj and Gazipur regions has slowed due to low gas pressure for the past two months. The announcement of the repairs and the accompanying disruption has worried factory owners, reports bdnews24.com.
The 60-km stretch of high-pressure gas transmission line from Bakhrabad to Siddhirganj will undergo an inspection through a process known as "intelligent pigging" before repair work is conducted, Titas said in its statement.
This will disrupt the gas supply to parts of the Dhaka South City Corporation, Zinjira, Keraniganj, Meghnaghat, Sonargaon, Haripur, Narayanganj, Fatullah, and Munshiganj. Other areas may also experience low gas pressure.
The GTCL transmission line has rusted or fallen into disrepair in many areas due to a lack of maintenance, according to a Titas Gas engineer in charge of the Narayanganj region. This has led to gas pressure dropping. Once the rust is cleaned from the pipes, gas pressure will rise again, according to Titas.
Consumers and factory owners have expressed outrage over the extended disruption to the gas supply.
The low gas pressure in the area has already forced many factories to use alternate fuel sources to keep running.
Fazle Shamim Ehsan, manager of garment maker Fatullah Apparel, says these areas have had no gas for the past two months and the low pressure has meant that the factory cannot stay open for even six hours a day.
Titas has given no assurances that the situation will improve once they clean the transmission line, he said.