Miscreants attack during illegal gas connection removal drive

Gas for cooking

Dhaka, January 8: Today, after conducting an illegal gas connection removal drive through a mobile court in the Moishtek area of Sonargaon, a gang suddenly attacked the team while they were trying to disconnect the illegal two-inch diameter line adjacent to Mirertek market. Engineer Mohammad Shahabuddin, Deputy General Manager of the Regional Marketing Department, Sonargaon, was seriously injured in the sudden attack by the miscreants. In addition, an employee of Titas, two workers of the disconnection team and some police members were also injured.

In the said drive led by Executive Magistrate of the Energy and Mineral Resources Department, Fazle Wahid, about 1 kilometer of illegal gas connections were disconnected in the Moishtek area. In this, 200 residential stoves of about 200 houses were disconnected. In addition, about 100 feet of MS and 150 feet of PVC pipes were removed in the drive.

In addition, a separate operation was conducted to remove illegal gas connections in the Fakir Market area of Joydevpur, Gazipur, under the leadership of Milton Roy, Executive Magistrate of the Energy and Mineral Resources Department.

A person was fined Tk 50,000 through a mobile court for being involved in providing illegal gas connections.

During the operation, 700 feet of illegally installed 3/4 inch diameter pipeline were lifted and seized. As a result of the removal of illegal distribution lines, illegal gas connections of 300 stoves in 300 houses were disconnected. In addition, one point of two inches in diameter, one point of one inch in diameter and 11 points of 3/4 inches in diameter were killed.

It is worth noting that a total of 16,827 illegal gas connections and 40,916 burners, including 145 industrial, 86 commercial and 16,596 residential, were disconnected during the operation from September 2024 to January 7, 2025. As a result of the illegal disconnection, 11.13 million 13,253 cubic feet of gas was saved daily, worth about 51.65 million taka. In addition, 86 kilometers of pipeline were removed in these operations. – PID Handout