What price?: Consumers arrive early for CNG

People park their vehicles at CNG stations at sehr.

LAHORE:

Motorists have to face many difficulties in getting CNG during Ramazan after the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) changed the schedule of gas supply.

On July 1, gas authorities reduced weekly gas supply to 18 hours from 48 hours before Ramazan. The fuel is now available at stations on Monday and Thursday from 6am to 3pm.

There are long queues of motorists outside most gas stations in the city on the two days when CNG is available for nine hours. Some motorists arrive at the CNG stations soon after sehr and park their cars.

“I charge Rs50 each to look after vehicles that start queuing up at the station soon after midnight,” said Sajjad Ahmad, a security guard at fuel station located on the Wahdat Road.

More than 40 cars were parked at the station at 4am, two hours before the CNG supply was to resume.

Guards or workers at other CNG stations in the city charge from Rs20 to Rs100 from people, leaving their vehicles at night on Monday and Thursday.

Sajjad said that some drivers waited in their cars all night and only left for sehr.

“I arrived here at around 2am. There were already 15 cars ahead of me,” Muhammad Ghazanfar, a driver from Iqbal Town, said. He said he would only return home for sehri.

Usman Ali, a resident of Awan Town, waiting at another CNG station on Wahdat Road, told The Express Tribune that he had arrived at the station at 5am.

“There were some 20 cars here. After the CNG supply starts, it will take almost 90 minutes before it is my turn,” he said.

Another motorist, Sultan Akram, said he arrived at the CNG station at 5am on Thursday and Monday. “The hardest ordeal starts at 6am when the CNG supply resumes. We have to move our cars very slowly towards the station,” he said.

He said the government should change the CNG schedule to provide some relief to the consumers.

All Pakistan CNG Association Chairman Ghiyas Paracha told The Express Tribune that the government had assured his association that it would soon change the CNG supply schedule.

“We have demanded five days of CNG supply a week,” he said. Paracha said they would soon hold a meeting with the Petroleum Ministry to finalise the arrangements.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 11^th, 2014.