Gas leak during highway construction halts industries in Habiganj

The accident causes a significant loss of gas from the pipe

A gas leak during construction work on the four-lane Dhaka-Sylhet highway at Habiganj’s Madhabpur has disrupted gas supply to about 28 industries.

The incident occurred around 11:30am on Thursday in the Shahpur area of the Noapara union, said Junaid Ahmed, the manager of Jalalabad Gas T & D System Ltd in the Shahjibazar region.

Ahmed said the leak happened when a gas line was accidentally struck by a highway construction excavator near the Matador Group's factory. Consequently, the gas supply to the Madhabpur-Alipur area has been halted.

The interruption in gas supply has led to production disruptions in several industrial factories.

Dipak Kumar Deb, chief plant officer of PRAN Industrial Park in Habiganj, said: "Our company has been without gas since morning, halting our production. There's uncertainty about when gas supply will resume, but authorities suggested it might be by the evening."

"We've incurred a loss of at least Tk 100-150 million due to the gas shortage," he added.

Engineer Md Rezaul Haque, general manager of Saiham Group, said: "Our factory had to close due to the gas shortage, resulting in an estimated loss of Tk 50 million."

"If proper precautions had been taken, this situation could have been avoided and so could our losses," he said.

Jalalabad Gas Authority said although the transmission line had been relocated to a safer distance according to the contractor company's design, the accident still occurred, resulting in a significant loss of gas from the pipe.

Manager Junaid said, "We are working on the accident site. Hopefully, we will be able to normalise the gas supply soon.”