GT Road sees protest against gas shortage

LAHORE – The Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited’s (SNGPL) domestic consumers took to the streets against suspension of gas supply and blocked the main GT Road for hours on Sunday causing severe traffic problems. The SNGPL is violating the schedule it has given to domestic customers for gas availability, irking citizens at large who criticised the company for not keeping its word.
Shahdara residents reached the GT Road near the Ravi Toll Plaza and blocked it by burning tyres and chanted slogans against the SNGPL authorities for not providing gas around the clock. The protestors, holding sticks in their hands, expressed their anger on the situation and urged government authorities to solve their problems.
“There is no gas in our house for the last two weeks and we are living in a miserable condition,” said housewife Zubaida Shamim adding that the SNGPL had failed to provide gas to domestic customers. People said that they had to buy food from restaurants, which was very expensive and unhealthy.
“I cannot buy food from hotels daily, as I don’t earn that much,” said Faizan Lodhi adding that the SNGPL should at least follow its gas availability schedule. Another protestor Mahir Hussain said that people were using kerosene oil for preparing meals,
which was very expensive. The SNGPL had advertised a schedule for gas availability for domestic users. According to the schedule, consumers were asked to prepare food from 6am to 8:30am and 6pm to 8:30pm. Interestingly, the SNGPL had totally failed to implement the schedule and there was no gas for domestic users even at the above mentioned hours. Gas pressure in all parts of the city remained very low and in many areas there was no gas.
Gas pressure at CNG stations was also very low and many stations were closed due to unavailability of gas. Motorists faced problems and had to use petrol for travelling. Gas pressure improved at night and CNG stations witnessed long vehicle queues. “It would be a working day on Monday and its better that I wait for getting gas from the CNG station,” said motorist Ausaf Afzal adding that the SNGPL had failed to provide relief to people.