Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company will introduce the first batch of prepaid gas meters at homes in Lalmatia and Mohammadpur from June to curb gas wastage and ensure fair payment by the consumers.
Under a pilot project, 4,500 prepaid gas meters will be installed in the households with the assistance from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet), M Abdul Aziz Khan, managing director of Titas said in a programme in the capital yesterday.
Another 8,600 meters will make their way to three lakh houses from Uttara to Badda by 2012, he added.
State Minister for Energy, Power and Mineral Resources, Enamul Huq inaugurated the production of meters at the Academy Building of Buet yesterday.
Speakers at the programme said installation of prepaid meters would ensure better use of gas and financial discipline in Titas. It would also discourage gas wastage as the billing would depend on the usage instead of the present monthly fixed rates.
“The [prepaid] meters will help us come out of the habit of careless use of gas,” said Prof Dr Hossain Mansur, chairman of Petrobangla.
Three more gas fields could be explored by the end of this year, hoped the Petrobangla chief adding, this would improve the gas situation of the country and cut the difference between demand and supply.
According to Titas officials, the Institute of Information and Communication Technology (IICT) of Buet will assemble 5,000 meters by May.
After installing 4,500 in the first phase, the rest will be kept as reserves for possible replacements.
Titas also expects to install 700 remote meters from Uttara to Badda, said M Abdul Aziz Khan, managing director of Titas.
The remote meters will be set up at the customer’s premises and monitored from the Titas office through a computer network.
Monzur Rahman, managing director of Dhaka Electric Supply Company Limited (Desco), Prof SM Nazrul Islam, vice chancellor of Buet and Prof Md Habibur Rahman, pro-VC, among others, also spoke.
Buet also assisted Desco to produce 10,000 prepaid electric meters. Later the power authority produced its own meters under a royalty contract with Buet.
Designing prepaid electric meters earned Buet the first prize in an international engineering competition in 2001.
