"My household work is seriously hampered due to very low pressure of gas during the daytime. Cooking takes much longer time for this problem," said Mahbuba, a housewife at Mirpur. "I have to cook meal after 10 at night when the pressure increases a little."

The ongoing gas crisis affects Mirpur, Jigatala, Rayerbazar, Moghbazar, Hazaribagh, Pallabi, Basabo, Baridhara, Gulshan, Gendaria, Sutrapur, Shyamoli, Badda, Demra, Mohammadpur, Uttara, Maniknagar, Gopibagh, Kalabagan and Tejgaon areas.

When asked, officials of Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Ltd said there is no hope of improving the situation before June 2006.

"In the last few days we have tried to increase the pressure of gas supply in the most affected areas by decreasing supply in the areas that were getting normal supply," a high official of Petrobangla said, seeking anonymity.

The residents of Mirpur Section-12 said they do not get enough supply of gas to their kitchens from 9:00am to 10:00pm over the last one week. Even the little increase in pressure after 10:00pm does not help them finish cooking in normal time.

"The government should not ask for gas bills for these months. We should not pay them in full when the supply is much less than our requirement," said Monirul Haque, a resident of Kalabagan, one of the worst-hit areas.

Titas official said they are now supplying 340 million cubic feet (mmcf) gas for household use in the city against the demand of 400 mmcf in this winter.

The gas crisis also forces CNG-run autorickshaws to wait in long queues at the filling stations. Md Amin, an autorickshaw driver, said he had to wait for two hours at a filling station at Maghbazar to refuel his vehicle.

"The number of refuelling stations has increased, but we are still facing the low pressure problem. Our fate will never be changed," he lamented.

When the city dwellers want an immediate solution to the problem, officials of Titas, the gas supplier in the capital, said the crisis is likely to continue until June next year when the implementation of Dhaka Clean Fuel Project (DCFP) will be complete.

The project, which started in July 2002, aims at increasing the gas supply capacity in the capital. On completion of the project, supply of CNG (compressed natural gas) would be possible from 500 filling stations in the city.

Asian Development Bank (ADB) has sanctioned Tk 58.98 crore for the Tk 108.94 crore project that also aims to keep the city pollution-free by encouraging the use of CNG.

So far only 35 percent work of the project has been finished.

Asked about the slow progress of the project, a high official of DCFP said the work was stalled temporarily for the Saarc summit and rain. "We still hope that we will be able to finish the work within the stipulated time," he added.