ISLAMABAD
Long queues at the compressed natural gas (CNG) filling stations in the twin cities are causing jams and hindering smooth traffic flow on roads.
The motorists throng the stations early in the morning to get the affordable fuel filled in cylinders during limited time from 10am to 4pm.
This has increased the burden of traffic wardens to maintain traffic order as most of the CNG stations are situated in congested areas or at main roads.
The Islamabad Traffic Police (ITP) have urged citizens to cooperate with traffic wardens and maintain a single queue instead of multiple ones.
Some citizens view that the situation is due to mismanagement and lack of proper planning. There should be not more than one queue of vehicles and the violators should be fined.
Rehan Khan, a resident of Satellite Town Rawalpindi, where CNG stations are clustered, said the people were facing problems due to long queues of vehicles and it was the responsibility of traffic police to ensure traffic discipline.
He said alternative routes for commuters could be planned or the fuel seekers could be guided as to how maintain discipline. He said separate lanes could be chalked out for commercial and private vehicles to que up in front of outlets.
A motorist said that the traffic mess mainly due to wrong parking of vehicles and other traffic violations while closure of CNG stations adds fuel to fire.
Supreme Council of CNG Association Chairman Ghiyas Abdullah Paracha said the CNG filling stations should be permitted to remain open for nine hours a day and 18 hours on Wednesdays, without electricity load-shedding and with proper gas pressure.
He said removing bottlenecks in the energy projects, doubling budget of all such projects, early import of LNG, finding new reserves, and efficient use of natural gas would help improve situation.
He said the PML-N government was taking serious measures for resolving the issues of CNG sector, which would go a long way in easing the energy crisis.
He said people were getting CNG in Punjab on a daily basis after four years and it would them some time to get accustomed to the new schedule, which would eventually end queues.