A faulty Titas Gas line might have caused the explosion at the seven-storey Café Queen building in the capital’s Siddique Bazar last month, say investigators.
They say the Titas contractor concerned should have stopped the commercial gas supply to the building before installing a new domestic line.
Visiting the blast site yesterday, the bomb disposal unit (BDU) of the DMP’s Counter Terrorism and Transitional Crime unit found a “commercial gas line” at the building.
The gas connection pipe from the riser to the outer wall of the building was 1.5 inch wide. The building’s sewage line was also there.
A “reducer” was installed there by the contractor to convert the commercial line into a domestic one with a pipe 0.25 inch wide which is not supposed to contain the pressure of gas supplied from a 1.5 inch wide pipe, said investigators.
An explosion at the building on March 7 killed 25 people and injured more than 100 people.
The BDU team disclosed their findings to The Daily Star after inspecting the blast site.
“Titas Gas was supposed to install the domestic gas line from the riser after severing the commercial line. But the contractor provided the connection with a thinner pipe installing a reducer,” said Raisul Islam, inspector of the BDU and also the investigation officer of the case filed after the explosion.
There was mismanagement by Titas, said the officer.
Md Haronur Rashid Mullah, managing director of Titas, said that it was not supposed to happen.
“There is no scope to change the gas line or install pipe underground after the riser. We may able to say clearly about it after inspection of the site by our team,” he told The Daily Star.
On April 3, Titas Gas official Moshiur Rahman said there was once a commercial gas line at the building, but it was disconnected and a domestic gas line was installed.
Rahmat Ullah Chowdhury, chief of the BDU team, told this newspaper yesterday that there was an empty space where the pipe width was reduced.
“Gas might have accumulated in the space and then flowed to the basement from there, which ultimately led to the explosion,” he added.
The BDU investigation team also found two other reasons for the explosion.
Inspector Raisul said there is no scope for installing an AC in the basement.
“But building owner Wahidur Rahman built a store fitted with AC in the basement and rented it out for Tk 40,000,” he said.
Wahidur had permission from Rajuk to construct a five-storey building, but he extended it to seven-storey, said Raisul.
Wahidur was arrested a day after the explosion. He is now behind bars.
According to investigators, the building owner complained about the low gas pressure just about a month before the explosion. A new riser was installed later to increase the pressure, they said.
Raisul said that they contacted Titas Gas to know about the installation of the new riser, but Titas said they were not aware of it.
“We are checking if there is any negligence on the part of Titas Gas,” he added.
