The pre-paid gas meter designed by the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology will be launched in Dhaka today (Tuesday).
The state minister for energy, power and mineral resources, Muhammad Enamul Huq, will launch the newly developed meter at the BUET in the afternoon.
BUET’s vice-chancellor SM Nazrul Islam will preside over the launching programme which is expected to be attended by Petrobangla’s chairman Md Hossain Monsur, Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company’s managing director Md Abdul Aziz Khan and Dhaka Electric Supply Company’s managing director Md Monzur Rahman, along with other dignitaries.
Titas will start providing 5,000 pre-paid meters, under a Tk 4.5 crore pilot project, to its domestic consumers at Dhanmondi and Lalmatia to discourage wastage of energy, officials told New Age on Monday.
Titas expects to gradually provide the pre-paid meters to all its 10 lakh domestic consumers in the city if the pilot project is successful, said Titas’s deputy general manager and project director M Atiquzzaman.
The meters have been designed and manufactured under the supervision of the BUET’s Institute of Information and Communication Technology which has assembled the meters with parts imported from various countries, mostly China.
The pre-paid meters will make it unnecessary for the consumers to queue up in banks to pay their bills, said officials.
Each consumer will be given a smart card to recharge the meter, but the connection will not be snapped on the weekends even if the balance is exhausted, sources added.
Titas’s officials said that 8,600 more pre-paid meters would be produced later with fund from the Asian Development Bank.
