New transmission line may not bring gas to users soon

Establishing a gas transmission line in the country's northern districts has almost been completed, but people and industries in the region will not benefit from the progress immediately because of a lack of a distribution network.

According to officials of Gas Transmission Company Limited (GTCL), 90 per cent of work of the 150-kilometre Bogura-Rangpur-Saidpur transmission line project has been completed at a cost of Tk 1,359 crore.

The project, whose implementation kicked off in 2018, was revised twice and the new deadline is June 2023.

But entrepreneurs in the greater Rangpur division have expressed disappointment since they are unlikely to get gas due to an absence of distribution lines even if the project completes in line with the new deadline.

According to officials of Gas Transmission Company Limited, 90 per cent of work of the 150-kilometre Bogura-Rangpur-Saidpur transmission line project has been completed at a cost of Tk 1,359 crore

"It's upsetting that the construction of the gas distribution line network has not started though it was scheduled to finish by 2023. The delay may hamper the prime minister's plan to bring about equal development across the country," said Mostofa Sohrab Chowdhury Titu, president of the Rangpur Chamber of Commerce and Industries.

Paschimanchal Gas Company Limited (PGCL) is yet to start the construction of distribution pipelines needed to supply gas to consumers under a Tk 258-crore project, which was approved in the middle of 2021.

Both GTCL and PGCL are subsidiaries of Petrobangla: the former lays the main gas transmission pipeline while the later installs the distribution network and brings gas to the doorsteps of users.

Some industrialists have begun working to set up factories in 11 northern districts as the hope of accessing gas received a boost after the beginning of the transmission network. Sanita Ceramics is one of them.

Mozahedul Islam Farooque, owner of the company, said, "We are running a ceramic factory by using costly electricity. We had expected to get the gas connection soon after the transmission line project was initiated."

"And we had thought that the production cost would be reduced after getting gas. Now, our survival is under threat."

Fazlul Karim, the project director of the gas distribution project in Rangpur, Nilphamari, Pirganj and adjoining areas, said they are yet to get any contractor.

"A few months earlier, we floated a tender to select a construction firm. But we have failed to get one owing to the global uncertainty. We are now preparing to issue the second tender."

He said a 44km distribution line is scheduled to be built in the Rangpur city and adjoining areas, while a 10km distribution network in Pirganj and a 46km line in Nilphamari and in the Uttara Export Processing Zone are supposed to be constructed.

Currently, PGCL can supply 176 million cubic feet of gas a day in Bogura, Pabna, Sirajganj and Rajshahi against the daily demand of 273mmcfd due to poor flow of gas, sources at the state-run company said.

Shafiqul Alam Dablu Shah, president of the Nilphamari Chamber of Commerce and Industries, said, "The gas supply situation in the region may not be smooth even after the supply lines are built. The flow of gas might be a factor here."

Nazmul Islam, a deputy general manager of GTCL, says the state-run company now channels 2,900 mmcfd of gas every day against the demand of 3,600 mmcfd to 3,800 mmcfd.

The Bogura-Rangpur-Saidpur gas transmission pipeline is the prime minister's priority project and it will go into operation soon, according to Md Hafizur Rahman Chowdhury, a joint secretary of the power, energy and mineral resources ministry.

Once distribution lines are set up, the pipeline would help supply gas to 102 heavy industries in Rangpur, 24 in the Uttara EPZ in Nilphamari, and two under-construction power plants in Rangpur and Nilphamari.