Gas crunch hits Gorai industrial units

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Badrul Ahsan At least fifty export-oriented factories of Gorai industrial area under Tangail district have been facing closure due to low pressure of gas for the last couple of months, insiders said. Due to the crisis, most of the factories of the area could not either ship their products on time or failed to meet their buyers' requirements fully. Future of hundreds of thousands of workers and employees working in the factories has fallen in deep uncertainty as they might lose their jobs if the situation did not improve. According to the information of factory owners, factories of the area need at least 5,27,542 cubic metres of gas but they are getting 1,21,334 cubic metres of gas which is less than one fourth of the total requirement. Re-opening of Jamuna fertiliser factory has been blamed for adding extra burden to the crisis. Considering the severe gas crisis of the area, operation of Jamuna Fertiliser Company Ltd (JFCL) was declared temporarily closed by the government on March 26 this year. But increased demand of fertiliser has forced the government to re-start the factory on September 08, 2011. Major (rtd) M A Halim, executive director of Meghna Group, the biggest producer and exporter of Bangladesh-made bi-cycles to the EU (European Union) countries, told the FE, "Due to the gas crisis we have already been failing to ship bi-cycles according to the orders." Mr Halim also said, "Only due to the gas crisis, the country might lose its 5th position as cycle exporting country to the Europe." According to the data of Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), Bangladesh has failed to achieve its target of export of bi-cycles in July-August period though it was the peak time to supply bi-cycles to EU countries. Bangladesh has exported more than 0.5 million bi-cycles to EU countries and positioned itself as 5th among other global competitors in 2010. Director (engineering operation) of Square Pharmaceuticals Ind Ltd told the FE, "We can run our factory at best eight hours (from 12 PM to 8 AM) a day with the help of both gas and rental diesel generator which is not at all profitable for us." "If the situation continues, our export might fall and we might fail to make ourselves price competitive in the local market also," he added. "The situation has also created uncertainty in paying salaries and wages of around five thousand of our workers, staff and others involved." The factory owners of the area have formed an eight member committee headed by Bidhan Sarker, general manager of Uttara Group, to pursue with the government to overcome the situation. The committee met the managing director (MD) of Titas Gas T & D Co Ltd on October 02, 2011 but did not get any satisfactory response from him. "We have met the Titas MD but he did not show his interest in helping the victims," Sarker said. According to the information of Mr Sarker, Titas MD Abdul Aziz Khan said, "Both government and private sector are our clients, so we would not take any special decision for the private sector." "Titas MD, however, said that a new service line might start working immediately, then the situation might improve," Sarker added.