In recent months, the word is going round that supply of gas to people through household connections would be stopped. The government has been considering the matter seriously. It made the city dwellers very much worried.
Four decades ago I had gone through a write-up of a Soviet scientist which was published in Udoyon, a fortnightly magazine. It was pointed out in the article that when fuel gas is consumed to generate power (electricity) and the power generated this way was used for productive purpose and only 25 per cent of output was achieved. The writer suggested use of gas directly for different productive purposes. But in Bangladesh the government is providing gas to generate power on priority basis as well as at a very low price. It is known that by this time the efficiency of combined cycle power generation plant machinery has been increased. Even not more than 50 per cent of targeted output is achieved from high quality machinery these days. We know that gas is used in households directly for cooking purposes. Here the output of gas use is more or less 80 per cent. Moreover, use of LPG for cooking purpose is hazardous. Carrying gas filled cylinders and returning empty cylinders is not only a laborious but also a very difficult job to handle at odd hours of day or night. It cannot be foreseen when the gas in the cylinder is going to be finished. I personally experienced such problems in India where it is costly as well. In the backdrop of the above, I strongly feel that the government should discourage use of fuel gas for generation of power, rather use of fuel gas should be encouraged for household needs, operation of vehicles and production of fertilizers.
Md Ashraf Hossain
120, Central Bashabo, Dhaka-1214.
