Owners of ship-breaking yards at Sitakunda are misappropriating millions of cubic metres of concentrated natural gas (CNG), violating the government’s directive, at a time when there is severe crisis of gas in the port city of Chittagong. Owners of CNG refuelling stations in Sitakunda upazila have been selling CNG to the ship-breaking yards at the dark of night, in complete violation of regulations, taking opportunity of the inaction of the controlling authority, Karnaphuli Gas Distribution Company Limited (KGDCL). As a result, the government is losing crores of taka worth of revenues from CNG, everyday.
It is alleged that the dishonest owners of ship-breaking yards, CNG refuelling stations in Sitakunda upazila, and some corrupted officials have formed a nexus, and misappropriating CNG, violating all rules. These syndicates are allegedly patronised by a lawmaker and his sons, who are leaders of the ruling Awami League. One industrialist and a top BNP leader of Sitakunda are also involved in this syndicate.
KGDCL authorities said that CNG refuelling stations are allowed to sell gas to vehicles only. They have no right to sell gas for industrial or domestic use.
However, while visiting different refuelling stations, from City Gate to Kumira area, in Sitakunda upazila, it was found that mobile cranes, carrying portable gas cylinders, start standing in queue at the refuelling stations, from 10 pm every night, to refill the cylinders with CNG and take them to ship-breaking yards. This goes on all night long.
Some of the refuelling stations where this illegal selling of CNG were witnessed, are Sonali CNG Refuelling Station, Badsha Filling Station, Fuel Plus Filling Station, Bay View Filling Station, Sea Gold Filling Station, Chattala Filling Station, Almas Filling Station, Rising Filling Station, and Mir Filling Station. Sources related to ship-breaking unit said that scrapped ships are usually cut by the high temperature flame produced with the combination of liquid petroleum gas (LPG) and oxygen.
Recently, the price of LPG has gone up, causing an increase in the cost of cutting down these ships. To reduce the costs, ship-breakers hit upon the idea of using CNG, instead of LPG, and developed a mechanism, by combining 10-20 small cylinders into big portable steel boxes, for refilling CNG.
The big steel boxes are usually carried by mobile cranes, from shipyards, to the refuelling stations, and after refilling, these are brought back to the yards, to be used for cutting the ships. As selling CNG for industrial purpose is illegal, the refuelling is mainly done at night, to avoid any legal action.
Sources also said that a ship-breaking yard consumes 30,000-40,000 cubic metres of CNG everyday, and there are more than 70 yards that are now using CNG to cut down the scrapped ships. The quantity of CNG consumed by the ship-breakers is more than 2.5 lakh cubic metres.
The ship-breaking yards allegedly involved in illegal use of CNG are Mannan Steel, Majid Steel, BBC Steel, Kabir Steel, Rising Steel, Janata Steel, Habib Steel, SN Corporation, Afadi Steel, Prime Steel, Super Steel, Mabia Steel, Ambia Steel, Tania Steel, SK Steel, Master Steel, Bangle Steel, Dynamic Steel, Shital Steel, 7B Steel, Unique Traders, JL Steel, Jamuna Ship-breaking, and others.
Sources related to CNG refuelling stations said that the price of per cubic metre CNG is Tk. 30, but, from the ship-breakers, they charge Tk. 32. “We have to take Tk. 2 extra, per unit, as we have to bribe the police and KGDCL officials,” the sources said, adding that, otherwise, they would not be able to run this business.
Engineer Firoz Alam, general manager (marketing) of KGDCL, admitted the practice of illegal use of CNG by ship-breaking units. He said that according to the law enacted for CNG, selling gas for industrial is illegal.
“We have issued notices to the refuelling stations to stop the illegal refuelling, several times, but they did not take any action,” he said, adding that the KGDCL also sought help from the Sitakunda police and upazila administration, by writing letters, to stop the illegal selling of valuable CNG. However, no one took any action.
When told about the refilling stations charging additional Tk. 2 per cubic metre of CNG, to “manage the KGDCL and police”, Firoz Alam struck down such allegations. “Can you tell me the names of the officers of KGDCL who receive money from the refuelling stations?” he asked.
Asked about conducting drives by the executive magistrate of KGDCL, engineer Sudhir Kumar Saha, deputy general manager, said that illegal refuelling is mainly done at the dark of night, from 10pm to 6am. “During those hours, it’s not possible to conduct mobile court drives and disconnect the connection of the refuelling stations, as the office hours are between 9am and 5pm,” he said.
Saha also blamed the police and upazila administration for not cooperating with KGDCL in stopping this illegal practice.
Inspector Ilias, officer-in-charge (investigation), said that the police station has not received any letter from the KGDCL authorities, regarding taking action against illegal refuelling. “We don’t even know that selling CNG to the ship-breaking yards is illegal,” he said, adding that police will take action soon.
Habibul Haque, president of Chittagong LPG Dealers’ Association, said that the locally developed technology for using CNG, to cut ships, is not safe. “The cylinders can burst, causing huge casualty at any point of time,” he added.
“We have given information on this issue to the explosives department, but the authorities are yet to take any action,” Habib said.
Mahbubul Alam, president of the Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that owing to the gas crisis, KGDCL has been unable to give connection to more than 50 garments manufacturing units, and thousands of households in the city. “On the other hand, the CNG refuelling stations are selling millions of cubic metres of gas to the ship-breaking industry, illegally, adding further pressure,” he said.
“This cannot be allowed to go on,” he added, urging the government to stop illegal selling of gas, and to increase gas supply to Chittagong.
Courtesy of The Independent
