Infrastructure Crisis as Third Gas Leak Hits Dhaka

For the third time in a mere fortnight, Dhaka’s crumbling gas infrastructure has buckled under pressure, leaving vast swathes of the northern capital in the dark and without fuel. On Tuesday evening, Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution PLC confirmed a major failure near the Tongi Bridge, where a high-pressure valve serving industrial clients ruptured, triggering a localized emergency.

To prevent a catastrophic explosion and contain the high-pressure leakage, authorities were forced to enact an immediate “shunting” of the primary 12-inch diameter trunk line. This decisive action has effectively severed the gas supply to some of the city’s most densely populated residential and commercial hubs.

Impacted Localities and Technical Outlook

The shutdown has caused widespread disruption, with thousands of households reporting a total loss of service. The primary areas currently affected include:

• Uttara: All sectors and surrounding residential blocks.

• Uttarkhan & Dakshinkhan: These peripheral townships are facing total outages.

• Industrial Belts: Several factories near the Tongi boundary have seen production grind to a halt.

Engineers are currently on-site attempting to replace the faulty valve—a critical component used to regulate flow and pressure across the network. While the utility provider has issued a formal apology for the “temporary inconvenience,” the frequency of these failures has left many residents skeptical of a swift resolution.

A Chronology of Failures

The following table highlights the alarming frequency of infrastructure collapses within the Titas network this month alone:

A City Under Siege

This technical breakdown comes at a time when Dhaka’s energy security is already under immense strain. A month-long crisis in the LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) market has left consumers with few alternatives. Even those willing to pay exorbitant “black market” premiums—often double the regulated price—find themselves unable to procure cylinders.

The recurring nature of these incidents—from the underwater leaks in the Turag to the high-profile burst near the Ganabhaban—suggests a network at its breaking point. As residents in Mirpur and Mohammadpur continue to struggle with low pressure from the January 4th disaster, the addition of the Uttara outage paints a bleak picture of the city’s utility management.