No major headway in Titas smart prepaid meter project

Although two separate deals were signed with the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank about a year ago to install some 17.5 lakh smart pre-paid meters, the Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company has made little progress in implementing the project.

"Only some individual consultants were appointed by Titas Gas PLC. No project management consultant (PMC) has been appointed yet," said a senior official of the Energy and Mineral Resources Division.

Explaining the significance of the PMC, he said it plays a crucial role in project implementation, as it is responsible for planning and designing the project.

"The main technical aspects remain in the hand of the PMC. Normally one or two foreign companies are appointed as PMC," he told UNB.

Newly appointed Managing Director of the Titas PLC Shahnewaz Parvez also admitted the poor progress of the smart prepaid meter project.

He, however, said the appointment of PMC is under process and hoped that the Titas will be able to appoint the consultant soon.

Official sources said Titas Gas signed two separate loan agreements on November last year with the World Bank and ADB to install a total of 17.5 lakh prepaid meters under two projects.

On 23 November 2023, Titas signed a loan agreement with the World Bank for installation of 11 lakh smart prepaid meters under the Gas Sector Efficiency and Carbon Abatement Project. 

The gas transmission and distribution company also signed another agreement with the Asian Development Bank on 28 November 2023 for the installation of 6.50 lakh smart prepaid meters under the Smart Metering Energy Efficiency Improvement Project. 

The government had undertaken the smart prepaid meter project for the Titas Gas PLC, to reduce the excessive system loss to a reasonable level.

As the oldest and largest gas distributor, both in terms of its operational area and volume of natural gas sales among the six gas distribution companies, the Titas Gas has been reeling with 7% system loss.

Titas Gas officials said the company has to incur a loss of Tk150-180 crore per month for its system loss. They said the entity can save Tk1,800-2,160 crore a year if such a huge system loss is checked.

Titas Gas has so far installed about 3.5 lakh of prepaid gas meters for its household consumers mainly in Dhaka city with the financial support of the Japanese donor agency JICA.

Its prepaid meters were installed mainly in Gulshan, Banani, Mohammadpur, Paltan, Ramna, New Market, Khilgaon and Segunbagicha areas.

Titas Gas currently supplies gas to over 2.878 million consumers, including some 2.853 million household consumers, 12,078 commercial consumers, 5,429 industrial consumers, 1,755 captive power plants, and 396 CNG stations.

As per the official statistics, Titas Gas alone holds 55% of the gas market share, while the other five companies have 45%.

Its vast operational area covers Dhaka, Manikganj, Gazipur, Narayanganj, Munshiganj, Narsingdi, and Mymensingh.

It annually sells about 14,459.41 MMCM (million cubic metres) of gas (2021-23 fiscal years), to earn a revenue of Tk26,387.12 crore.