Govt to introduce 1.76m prepaid gas metres in country

The government has decided to introduce 1.76 million (17.60 lakh) prepaid gas metres in Dhaka and Chittagong aimed at improving energy efficiency as well ensuring best use of gas, a ministry official said, reports BSS
"The government is installing pre-paid metres in the two mega cities residential consumers aimed at preventing the wastage of natural gas," Secretary of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry Abubakar Siddique told the news ahency Wednesday.
He said installation of 0.26 million prepaid metres in the two metropolitan cities, financed by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) would be completed by 2018.
Another project financed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to introduce 8,600 prepaid is set to complete by June this year, Siddique said.
He said the government has undertaken another project on long term basis to install 1.5 million prepaid metres for the residential consumers under Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Limited areas.
The energy secretary said residential consumers of the two metropolitan cities will get more financial benefits by using the prepaid gas metres in their existing two burners.
Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Limited is installing 2,00,000 prepaid metres for the residential consumers of Dhaka at a cost of Tk 7.22 billion (722 crore), while Karnaphuli Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Limited 60,000 metres at a cost of Tk 2.45 billion, according to project details.
The total cost for implementation of the two projects is Tk 9.71 billion, of which JICA is financing Tk 6.07  billion.