Chittagonians in turmoil as gas supply disrupted, factories halt production

The entire city of Chattogram is reeling from a gas crisis caused by the shutdown of two LNG terminals due to Cyclone Mocha, leading to food shortages, disrupted transportation, and halted production in industrial factories.

The gas crisis in Chattogram, which began Friday (12 May), has escalated to a critical level as the supply was completely stopped on Sunday morning, causing widespread food shortages and forcing people to turn to hotels for cooked meals, only to find that even the hotels are facing gas shortages and can only provide limited service using cylinders.

"People have been looking for food since Fajr. But cooking was not possible in the hotel as there was no gas in the gas line," said Delwar Hossain, manager of Khwaja Restaurant in the Kazir Deuri area of the city.

"Seeing the rush of people, we are now cooking with cylinders. But the amount we cook every day is not possible with cylinders," he added.

Some could not find food at hotels at all amid the gas outage and had to return home to rely on dried food. Some are standing in long queues for food in front of the few hotels that are still able to serve food.

The lack of gas has also disrupted the public transportation system, with people having to pay dramatically more to go the same distance.

"Normally, the maximum fare for going to Alankar from Rahattarpool is Tk20, but now the fare for going by rickshaw is Tk200," said Liton Chowdhury, an official of a private organisation.

Additionally, the number of transport is far less than needed, forcing many to resort to walking.

Moreover, The gas crisis has caused a major setback in the city's industrial production, with several factories halting their daily production capacity due to gas shortages.

"Like other industrial plants, our production has also stopped due to the shutdown of LNG supply due to the impact of Mocha," said the CEO of the KSRM Group, Mehrul Karim.

Similarly, BSRM Group's daily production capacity of 5,500 metric tons across two factories has been halted, reducing production to just 40% capacity due to the shortage.

"It may take approximately 6 or 7 days for the gas supply to return to normal," Rafiqul Islam, the managing director of Karnaphuli Gas Distribution Company Limited said while apologising to the customers stating that there is nothing they can do right now.