Government has set up an inter-ministerial taskforce to evolve an inspection and enforcement regime to ensure safety of CNG kits and cylinders installed in public transport and private vehicles. The taskforce will be headed by Joint Secretary Ministry of Petroleum, while Director General Hydrocarbon Development Institute of Pakistan (HDIP) will be its secretary, and representatives of OGRA, Department of Explosives, Motorway Police, RTAs and UN Disaster Risk Consultant will be its members. It has already conducted detailed interactions with the interior ministry, district administrations, provincial governments, traffic police and other stakeholders. Secretary petroleum has requested provincial chief secretaries to indicate locations in all districts for establishment of CNG testing stations by HDIP. Moreover, ministry of professional and vocational training has been requested to arrange for diploma courses through collaboration with NAVTEC and Provincial Technical Education and Vocational Training Authorities (TEVTA) to provide technical trainings in order to produce skilled personnel who would be deployed at all CNG stations and testing centers. Taskforce has recommended that refueling procedure and site safety at CNG pumps would be ensured by Chief Inspector Explosives (CIE) and OGRA. RFID chips would be implanted on tested cylinders and scanned prior to refueling. It is proposed that private vehicles would be inspected annually and Public Service Vehicles (PSVs) would be tested every four months. After the cut-off date Motor Vehicle Examination (MVE) will not certify vehicle having untested cylinders and RTA shall not grant route permits to vehicles having untested cylinders. Damaged, expired and non-approved cylinders would be seized by police and correct location of cylinders in PSVs would be decided by OGRA and use of multiple cylinders shall be banned.
Very pertinent policy framework evolved by the Federal Govt agencies. This is the need of the hour in order to avoid accidents /mishaps which most of the time are fatal one. There is also need of public awareness program reminding them to get their cylinders / vehicles be tested , certified after every five years, through media and other means.
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