CNG stations to remain closed for three days

The Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) officials announced on Sunday that Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) Stations would remain closed for three days i.e. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The CNG stations in Lahore region including Lahore City, Okara, Sahiwal, Sialkot and Gujranwala would be observing a three-day closure starting the first working day after Eid holidays as all public and private educational institutions would resume after summer vacations and banks and other organisations would start work after Eid holidays. So, the demand for fuel would be on the rise.
Although SNGPL had provided an uninterrupted supply of CNG on Eid, consumers would be inconvenienced once they start their routine lives. The routine traffic would resume after the Eid holidays and the demand for CNG would rise consequently.
Motorists said that SNGPL should review its decision of closing the CNG stations for three days as with the rise of petrol prices, the unavailability of CNG would be an economic ordeal for them. They said that the government might close down the CNG stations for a day instead as government could save millions of rupees by not importing oil and providing consumers with an alternative in the market.
A banker Ahmed Khan said that the SNGPL should review the decision of the three-day closure as it would increase the monthly budgets of consumers by 35 percent. The gas-shortage due to usage of water-heaters and gas-heaters in winters might make sense but the issue persisted in summer as well, he added.
A citizen Mobeen Malik said that the SNGPL had announced a one-day gas closure which had been increased to three days now and that it was possible that the SNGPL would shut down gas supply altogether and ask citizens to use petrol instead of CNG to fuel their vehicles. The SNGPL only targeted cutting down CNG supply to legitimate users and did not investigate gas thefts which were on the rise and many government officials were most likely to be involved in them, he added.
Muhammad Sadiq, the owner of Peco Road CNG Station said that his business had already reduced by 20-25 percent because of a two-day gas closure and a three-day gas closure would further aggravate the situation. It had become impossible to pay the staff their salaries because of the reduction in business, he added.
Another CNG station owner said that it was impossible to run a business that was forced to stay closed for three days a week.