CNG filling stations in the Uttara-Ashulia area have decided to stop supplying gas to covered vans and lorries fitted with unauthorised cylinders for transporting CNG, following an explosion and fire that killed and injured several people at Pretty Industrial Park in Jamgora, Ashulia.
Tanvir Rahman, joint secretary of the Bangladesh CNG Association and owner of TS CNG Refuelling and Conversion Ltd, said the decision was taken to halt gas supplies to vehicles carrying cylinders installed through unauthorised methods.
Rahman, who is also the zonal president of the association’s Uttara, Ashulia, Nabinagar, Baipail and Chandra zones, said the regional office of Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Ltd has already issued written instructions to CNG stations not to supply gas to such vehicles.
Titas authorities, meanwhile, said they have always instructed CNG stations not to supply gas to vehicles carrying unauthorised cylinders. Following the recent incident at Pretty Industrial Park, the authorities have once again issued letters to all CNG stations reiterating the same directive, they said.
However, several CNG station owners and officials in the area claimed that although Titas has issued written instructions not to supply gas to such covered vans, its officials have repeatedly told them verbally that Titas has no objection to supplying gas to the vehicles.
Tanvir told The Business Standard that Titas formally prohibits gas supplies to the vehicles but has always verbally instructed stations to supply them with gas.
“But whenever a problem occurs, the responsibility falls on us. So, we are no longer willing to get involved in this,” he said.
Tanvir further said that although the Titas office in the area issued another letter to CNG stations following the Pretty incident, no such directive had been issued in other areas. He therefore expressed doubts over whether the decision to stop supplying gas to the vehicles would be effectively implemented.
He said that even if gas supplies to such covered vans are stopped in the Uttara-Ashulia area, the vehicles could still collect CNG from stations in other areas where supplies remain available.
Contacted by The Business Standard, Engineer Abu Saleh Muhammad Khademuddin, manager of Titas Gas’s Ashulia Zonal Office, said the company had previously warned CNG stations against supplying gas to such vehicles and was continuing to do so.
“We warned them before, and we are still warning them. Following the Pretty incident, letters have again been sent to the CNG stations. Strict action will be taken if the directive is violated,” he said.
Asked why Titas had not taken action earlier despite repeatedly warning the stations, Khademuddin said Titas does not have the legal authority to enforce a ban on such vehicles.
“This will be dealt with by law enforcement agencies and the magistrate. We do not have the authority to enforce it,” he said.
The Titas official’s comments indicate that while the gas distributor can instruct CNG stations not to supply gas to unauthorised cylinder-carrying vehicles, enforcement against the vehicles themselves falls under the jurisdiction of law enforcement agencies and magistrates. There are a total of 19 CNG filling stations under the jurisdiction of Titas’s Ashulia Zonal Office.
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