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The consumers of compressed natural gas may feel happy as the gas bill is likely to decline considerably after the installation of the prepaid metering system in the domestic gas burners in the city.
The Karnaphuli Gas Distribution Co, which is responsible for supplying gas in Chittagong region, has started installing prepaid meters in 60,000 gas burners under a scheme aimed at stopping the indiscriminate use of the fossil fuel and reducing its cost at the end user level.
An official at the KGDCL said the authority was implementing the project at the cost of Tk 2.4656 billion (Tk 246.56 crore) with the financial help of the Japanese funding agency JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) and the Bangladesh government.
The project was approved by the government in 2014.
He said there were about 0.55 million approved gas burners in the Chittagong region but initially the authority is installing 60, 000 prepaid meters under the project. The installation of the prepaid meters of gas started on February 28 and is expected to be completed by June this year
Prepaid metering of electricity is also ongoing in the port city of Chittagong as consumers in some areas have been brought under the new system amid allegations that the consumers are not getting the desired result due to corruption by the field-level workers.
Currently, many parts of the city are experiencing the severe gas crisis but the sufferings of domestic consumers are acute as they don't get gas supply for six to eight hours a day on average as the gas distribution authority fails to meet even half the demand in Chittagong.
Sources in the KGDCL said the region would get the imported LNG (liquefied natural gas) from May 15 this year.
The consumers of Chittagong region will get the first priority of the LNG connection as this is the region where gas crisis is acute.
Sources said the gas bill of the end users will go up in the case of imported LNG due to its excessive overhead cost.
Currently, a domestic consumer of double burner has to pay Tk 800 a month but it will come down by almost 50 per cent after the installation of prepaid metering.
The users will be much cautious in using gas as they will have to pay for every bit before using it.
Project Director of the KGDCL Sarwar Hossain said that the agency has already installed 20, 200 prepaid meters in different areas in the Chittagong city.
Of that, they are collecting data from 300 burners, which have been recharged with gas at Nasirabad Housing Society and OR Nizam Road areas over the last six years.
After analysing the data they have found that the bill on the domestic double burner will come down.
The users are paying Tk 800 per month for a double-burner oven. The user gets 88 cubic meter gas at that amount at the rate of Tk 9.11 per cubic meter.
But surveys reveal that the user is consuming 50 cubic meters of gas and its bill at the said rate will stand at around Tk 455.
He said that the consumers will not face any problems in getting their meters recharged as 17 branches of different banks have been assigned to facilitate consumers get their prepaid meters recharged in due time.
Chittagong region is currently getting supply from 210 to 220 million cubic feet of gas a day (mmcfd) against the average demand of over 450 mmcfd, according to the officials of the Karnaphuli Gas.