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Published : 20 Jul 2026, 10:25 AM
From Pipe to Plug
The deficit: A daily shortfall of 500 million cubic feet of gas leaves Dhaka residents facing hours without any pipeline pressure
Damaged pipelines: Rainwater is seeping into Dhaka’s ageing, leaking network, further choking off the capital's failing gas supplies
The electric switch: Fed up with empty pipes, thousands of households are abandoning gas to cook on modern electric stoves instead
The switch is happening quietly, one kitchen at a time.
Across Dhaka, families are abandoning gas stoves for electric cookers -- not by choice, but by necessity -- as a deepening gas shortage upends daily life.
A sharp fall in gas supply, compounded by rainwater infiltrating ageing underground pipelines, has left many neighbourhoods without adequate pressure for hours each day.
Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution says it cannot predict when normal service will return. Until trapped water is cleared from pipelines and gas allocations increase, the disruption is expected to continue.
The company's network currently requires around 2 billion cubic feet of gas each day. Over the past several days, however, supplies have dropped below 1.5 billion cubic feet, creating a daily deficit of about 500 million cubic feet.
That shortfall has reduced gas pressure across Titas's service areas, including Dhaka, Gazipur and Narayanganj.
For residents, the consequences begin long before breakfast.
In West Dhanmondi's Jafrabad area, Ragib Hasan Galib said his family has been living with poor gas pressure for months. From around 9am until 3pm, gas is virtually unavailable, forcing the household to finish cooking before dawn or rely on an electric stove.
Most days, lunch must be prepared early in the morning.
"We are struggling with our children. They keep asking why there is no gas, and I have no answer," Galib said.
Akhira Islam, a resident of Mohammadia Housing Society, said the situation had become particularly severe over the past 15 days.
During the day, her stove barely lights. Only after evening does the pressure improve enough for cooking.
"Life has become so difficult. The stove won't light. We survive by cooking late at night when the pressure improves a little," she said.
A Network Under Strain
Kazi Md Saidul Hasan, Titas's director (operations), said the company's daily demand stands at roughly 2,000 million cubic feet, while allocations over the past two days have fallen below 1,500 million cubic feet.
The resulting shortage, he said, has created widespread low-pressure problems not only in Dhaka but also in Gazipur and Narayanganj.
"Dhaka sits at the far end of both the transmission and distribution network, so the capital experiences the crisis more severely," he told bdnews24.com on Sunday.
"Continuous rainfall and waterlogging have also allowed water to enter old pipelines through unidentified holes, disrupting gas flow in several areas."
He explained that when pipeline pressure drops, external water can seep through damaged sections into the network. Under normal pressure, such infiltration is far less likely.
While Titas crews are repairing visible leaks, locating damage buried deep underground is taking time.
According to Saidul, higher gas allocations would increase pipeline pressure, while reduced rainfall would help crews remove trapped water and gradually restore supplies.
He could not say when the crisis would end.
"The decision to increase gas allocations is not in Titas's hands," he said.
Complaints Pile Up
Several parts of Mohammadpur have experienced little or no gas for around 10 days. Similar complaints have emerged from Mirpur and other areas of the capital, where residents say supplies have either disappeared altogether or fallen to extremely low pressure.
Many households have switched to electric stoves, while others have been forced to buy cooked meals from outside.
Titas data show that its central emergency gas control centre received 8,353 complaints during the 2024-25 financial year.
Of those, 4,900 involved gas leaks, 2,274 reported complete supply disruptions and 252 concerned low pressure.
According to the Hydrocarbon Unit under the Energy and Mineral Resources Division, Titas received about 56 percent of all gas purchased by Bangladesh's six distribution companies during the same financial year.
The company bought 15,153.52 million cubic metres of gas over the year, equivalent to an average daily supply of around 1,466 million cubic feet -- still more than 500 million cubic feet below current demand.
Titas officials say much of Dhaka's distribution network is decades old. Road excavation and infrastructure works by different utility agencies have damaged pipelines in numerous locations over the years.
Another problem stems from illegal gas connections. After those connections are disconnected, associated pipelines are often left underground instead of being permanently removed or sealed.
During the monsoon, rainwater can enter these abandoned pipes and spread into the active distribution system, disrupting supply until the water is removed.
A similar incident occurred in January, when an anchor from a cargo vessel damaged a Titas pipeline beneath the Turag River at Aminbazar.
Water entered the network during repairs, causing several days of low pressure across Mohammadpur, Mirpur, Dhanmondi, Adabor and parts of Old Dhaka.
Although Titas has proposed replacing ageing pipelines and modernising Dhaka's network, the project has stalled.
The company planned to install about 2,781km of new distribution lines and modernise nearly 5,000km of existing infrastructure across Dhaka, Gazipur and Narayanganj at an estimated cost of Tk 81.61 billion.
The proposal also included GIS mapping and a SCADA-based automated monitoring system.
However, the Planning Commission returned the project for revision, raising concerns over its cost, financing and overall financial viability.
