Various areas of Lahore have been facing low gas pressure for the last week. The Sui Northern Gas Pipelines (SNGPL) said that because of high domestic demand of gas and an uninterrupted gas supply to Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) stations, various areas of Lahore were facing low gas pressure.
Mustafabad, Gari Shahu, Shadbagh, Shalimar, Township and Baghbanpura faced a huge shortage of gas during the Iftar time. Gari Shahu faced complete gas outage during the Iftar time. Residents of the areas with gas shortage said that there was no gas during Sehr and Iftar times and that it caused them inconvenience. A resident of Gari Shahu, Mobeenur Rehman said that he had to buy edibles from the market for Iftar and it was inconvenient for him. More than 200 houses were facing gas outages for the last week, he added.
Another resident of Gari Shahu, Fayyaz Iftikhar told Pakistan Today that the residents had lodged a complaint regarding the issue with the SNGPL officials but it was a futile exercise.
Abdul Qayyum, a resident of Mustafabad, said that the SNGPL justified gas outages in winter by saying that the use of water heaters and gas-heaters reduced gas pressure but they did not have any such justification for summers. SNGPL Deputy Secretary Muhammad Imtiaz said that the SNGPL was providing uninterrupted gas-supply to the CNG stations so the demand had increased. He said that 99 percent of users consumed gas at the Sehr and Iftar times, which resulted in low pressure. He said that the situation would improve soon.
