LAHORE – The CNG stations of the city would remain open on Monday (today) and there will be no closure. The CNG association said if SNGPL tried to close stations, they will respond with direct action.
The consumers also supported the CNG sector and appealed the government to end two-day closure in a week. The decision was made by All Pakistan CNG Association (APCNGA) on Sunday. The association said that SNGPL has failed to follow its commitment of giving uninterrupted gas supplies to the CNG stations after March 15th, 2011 therefore CNG sector has decided to disobey the two-day closure in a week.
“We will not follow closure on Monday and Tuesday and have decided to open CNG stations in the whole Lahore region,” said APCNGA member Executive Council Hassan Shah adding we know Sui Northern Gas Pipelines (SNGPL) officials will use force to close the CNG stations but we are ready for it. “We will give them tit for tat and not tolerate any aggression,” he said adding the CNG association fully cooperated with SNGPL during winter.
“We know there was shortage of gas therefore we followed the two-day closure in the winter but now there is no shortage but even then SNGPL is forcing us to close the CNG stations,” he added. The cities of Lahore, Gujranwala, Sialkot, Wazirabad, Sahiwal and Okara falls in Lahore region and according to SNGPL schedule CNG stations of these cities are closed on Monday and Tuesday.
In Rawalpindi region, the CNG stations are closed on Friday and Saturday while in Faisalabad region the stations are closed on Wednesday and Thursday. There have been scuffles between SNGPL officials and CNG station owners in Rawalpindi region on Friday. The CNG station owners in the city said they would follow the decision of the association and will not close the stations.
They said the two-day closure put their business in trouble and it became difficult for them to even pay the salaries of employees. “Two-day closure in one week means to run business on 70 percent capacity. How can one arrange salaries of employees when business is running on 70 percent capacity,” lamented a CNG station owner Muhammad Javed of College Road Township adding the CNG stations would remain open and the consumers should also help the CNG sector is defying the two-day closure.
“If the consumers support us then there will be no closure,” he added. There have been queues at the CNG stations in the evening for getting gas. The consumers asked the government to end the closure, as it has become difficult for them to run their vehicles on petrol. “My monthly bill of fuel has increased around 20-25 percent only because of closure of CNG stations,” said a consumer Fahad Hussain adding now the gas consumption at homes has decreased sharply.
“There is no point of closing CNG stations, when there is enough gas,” said another consumer Waheed Ahmed adding the geysers and heaters in the homes have closed and gas consumption at domestic level decreased. SNGPL Public Relation Officer (PRO) Babar Sagheer said the company has not made any plan about forcing the CNG stations for closure.
