Gas crisis has become acute in 171 industrial factories in Habiganj district. The supply was meager for the last 20 days, but since last Wednesday, more than 150,000 workers are spending idle time due to the complete shutdown of gas supply.
This is causing daily losses of more than a thousand crore taka. Foreign orders are being canceled one after another. The gas authority says that gas supply to power plants has been increased to maintain electricity production. As a result, gas supply to industries has had to be stopped.
Abul Hossain, General Manager of Jamuna Industrial Park located in Madhabpur Upazila, said, “We have a total of six factories here. These include tires, spinning, fabrics, paper, poly silk and power plants. All of these, except tires and power plants, are 100 percent export-oriented.”
Highlighting the daily loss figures, he said, “There are 12,000 workers, officials and employees working. Everyone is now unemployed. All the factories are closed. This is causing the company to lose about 100 crore taka daily.”
General Manager Abul Hossain said, “The daily approved gas demand in the factories here is 13.6 standard million cubic feet. But the Jalalabad Gas Authority has been providing 3 standard million cubic feet for quite some time, making production almost impossible. Now maintenance work is underway. But gas supply has been completely stopped since 12 midnight on Wednesday. Now all the units of the company are in complete darkness.”
Khairul Alam, general manager of Badsha Pioneer in the same upazila, said, “We have a daily demand of 30 megawatts of gas. But the gas supply has been low for quite some time. One-third or one-fourth was available. Gas supply has been completely stopped since Wednesday afternoon. As a result, 16,000 workers, officials and employees of the company are spending idle time. This is causing the company a daily loss of five crore taka.”
He said, “This 100% export-oriented company has spinning, textile, and garment factories. Foreign orders worth crores of taka are all about to be canceled. If the shipment cannot be made on time, the order will be canceled.” He demanded that gas supply be normalized quickly.
The SM Spinning Factory employs 13,500 workers, officials and employees. All of them are now unemployed, said Abul Bashar, the factory’s general manager.
He said, “Our gas supply has been shut down since 3:45 pm last Wednesday. We used to produce 38,000 metric tons of yarn daily. All production has been stopped. As a result, the daily loss is $121,600 (about 150 million taka in Bangladeshi currency).
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“Our production is 100 percent export-oriented. Now that production is stopped, it is not possible to ship on time. So orders are being canceled. There is no chance of taking new orders. If we cannot produce, then what will we do with the orders?” added General Manager Abul Bashar.
Engineer Rezaul Haque, General Manager of Saiham Group, said that gas has been supplied irregularly since July 22. Sometimes a third of the demand has been provided, sometimes a quarter. However, it has been completely stopped since 11:30 am on Wednesday.
He further said, ‘Our company is 100% export-oriented. There are 27,000 workers and officials here. All are unemployed. There is no electricity in the company. Everyone is sitting in the dark. There is no electricity in even a single room. We do not have any PDB or rural electricity lines. We generate and use electricity ourselves.’
Deepak Kumar Deb, general manager of Habiganj Industrial Park (PRAN-RFL Group) located in Shayestaganj Upazila, said, ‘There are 35,000 workers, officers and employees in our company. Everyone is now unemployed. They are spending their time idle. Although there has been a gas problem for quite some time, the gas supply has been completely stopped since 6 pm last Wednesday.
Abdul Majed, general manager of Square Denim in the same upazila, said, “Our daily gas demand is 20 megawatts. But the supply has been cut off since 3 pm on Wednesday. Now, 3,000 workers working in the factory have become unemployed. Yet our company is 100 percent export-oriented.”
Expressing his fears, he said, “We are not able to produce now with orders from buyers. It is not possible to ship on time. At some point, it will be seen that buyers will turn their backs on us. Our largest source of foreign exchange earnings will also be at risk.”
After visiting the area and talking to the concerned people, it has been learned that out of the 171 factories in the district, more than half are 100% export-oriented. And some are partially export-oriented. Almost all of the export-oriented companies generate their own electricity through captive power. Rural electricity or PDB electricity is not being used. Since the gas supply is stopped, their own electricity production is also stopped. This has affected production.
Deputy General Manager of Jalalabad Gas T&D System Limited Md. Ruhul Karim Chowdhury said, “Gas crisis is a national problem. This problem has started since the last week of July. We have also given a notification in the newspaper regarding this. This problem has mainly arisen due to increasing supply to power generation plants. He said that the problem can be resolved in the next 3-4 days.”
