Moratorium on new gas connections leaves thousands utility-less

According to SSGC, 25,186 apartment units and 109,202 houses are pending new connections

KARACHI:

With real estate prices sky-rocketing in Karachi, there has been a scurry of buyers looking for an opportunity to invest in apartments in new high-rise buildings being constructed across the metropolis. It is only after these unsuspecting buyers make the purchase that they find out that their multi-million rupee apartments are not worth living in due to the absence of utilities.

Three hundred and eighty high rise building projects under the Sui Sothern Gas Company’s (SSGC) domain await gas connections, with 25,186 units in total, of which 95 per cent are in Karachi, according to the acting general manager of corporate communications at SSGC, Shahbaz Islam.



There are also 132 housing schemes, with 109,202 plots, houses and bungalows pending connections, the majority of which are in Karachi admitted Islam. According to him,” New gas connections cannot be provided to any new high rise buildings or housing schemes due to the federal government’s moratorium [on new connections]”.

“The government of Pakistan has advised that these projects will be encouraged to energise their customers through Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and alternative energy sources,” he said, adding that there are no signs the moratorium may be lifted anytime soon.

According to Sarwanand, a resident of a gas-less apartment building in Bath Island, Clifton, the project was started in 2011 and they were promised by the builder that all utilities would be provided but the residents could not obtain gas connections when they got possession of the apartments in 2013. We have to pay Rs2,500 per month, which can go up to Rs3,500 per month in the winter, for refueling the gas cylinders, which is almost 10 to 15 times more expensive than having a gas connection, according to him.

“The people, as well as the builders of Karachi, are not getting gas connections for the projects, be it new housing schemes or high rise buildings,” claimed Rizwan Adhia, the vice-chairperson of the Association of Builders and Developers, Pakistan (ABAD).

The notification of the moratorium on gas connections on high rise buildings throughout Pakistan was issued by the prime minister in September 2011, for one year. The moratorium is being extended every year by the federal government.



Talib Hussain, who bought an apartment in Karimabad, said, “I sold my house to buy this apartment and the building is ready but I have not been able to move in for the last six months as the utilities are not available at the project.”

According to Adhia, more than 310 finished projects in Karachi are without gas connections since the ban and only 20 per cent of them are occupied. “People are reluctant to take possession from the builders and are not moving in because of the absence of gas connections,” he explained.

Adhia added that a majority of the newly-built projects In Bath Island, Gulistan-e-Jauhar, Bahadurabad and many other areas are lying unoccupied. We have to maintain, manage and secure our projects or else they risk occupation by land-grabbers due to the security situation in Karachi, he said.

Imdadullah, who bought an apartment in a newly-built project in Bath Island, said that the builder installed an old gas meter that was previously used by a bungalow built on the same plot on which the building has been constructed. He questioned how 60 apartment units could possibly use a single residential gas connection.

According to Adhia, high-rise buildings in Karachi only require gas for cooking purposes, whereas the buildings in Islamabad require it for heating purposes as well. He said that Peshawar and Lahore have no trend of high-rise buildings. He told The Express Tribune that the moratorium on new gas connections is effective throughout Pakistan but two high-rise buildings in Islamabad, The Centaurus Towers and Silver Oaks, managed to obtain gas connections.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 25^th, 2015.