The motorists in the Punjab are facing serious problems due to new gas load-management plan for the Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) outlets, according to which CNG stations in the province remain open for 6 hours a day from 10 am to 4 pm, which deprive a majority of consumers to refill their vehicles with fuel.
The new gas load-management plan, which was approved by the Sui-Northern Gas Pipelines Limited in consultation with All Pakistan CNG Association (APCNGA) instead of providing any relief to the public, has increased their miseries manifold, a survey carried out by Business Recorder has observed.
Majority of people said that the current timing of CNG stations results in long queues at all the outlets hindering traffic and wasting precious time of the motorists. It has observed that the current gas load-management plan is only benefiting the taxi owners as they occupy a CNG station early in the morning, get refilled the cabs with fuel within an hour and again in the afternoon after running their cabs for four hours occupy any CNG station in the way making it impossible for the working class to get their vehicles refilled with CNG.
The APCNGA has also requested the government to review the current gas load management plan for the CNG stations of Punjab, saying that the SNGPL was not providing full gas pressure to CNG outlets. The APCNGA has also said in practical term CNG stations remain open only for two hours a day as 4 out of 6 hours are being wasted due to power load-shedding.
While, the SNPGL authorities have told the CNG association that due to gas shortage the gas utility is unable to enhance the time duration of gas supply to CNG outlets from 6 hours a day. SNGPL is of the view that APCNGA has proposed current gas load-management plan and the gas distribution company at present is not in a position to change this.
In Islamabad and Rawalpindi, every day there are long queues of motorists standing outside the CNG stations to refill their cars and other vehicles with CNG, but many of them return without refilling mainly owing to low gas pressure and power load-shedding from 10 am to 4 pm, said Itrat Hussain Jaffri, a motorist waiting at CNG station to refill his car with cheap fuel.
Masses have to wait for hours on daily basis to get insufficient quantity of fuel which has put a big question mark on the effectiveness of government's new schedule, he noted. People have urged the government to restore old gas load-management plan according to which gas was being supplied to CNG outlets in the Punjab for three days a week and people as compared to the current load-shedding plan were much comfortable.
There are some 3,500 CNG stations across the country, while an estimated 3.7 million vehicles including Public Service Vehicles (PSVs), private cars, taxi cabs, rickshaws and mini buses are operating on CNG. The Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) government has tried to fulfil the pre-poll promise to end queues at the CNG filling stations by introducing a new schedule to provide CNG seven days a week to the masses, but bureaucracy is seemed not ready to provide any relief to the masses.