Winter woes: Tempers soar as gas runs low in Rawalpindi

Many areas in the city were without gas supply on Sunday morning.


Mudassir Raja November 21, 2011

RAWALPINDI:


Many areas in the city remained without natural gas supply for hours in the morning on Sunday. The supply was not resumed till late in the afternoon.


Besides domestic users, commuters continued to suffer in the absence of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) for the fourth consecutive day.

The CNG filling stations could not open up because of the low pressure of natural gas.

The supply of gas could not be resumed to the domestic users till as late as 3pm in some areas.

“I had to get a cylinder [of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG)] refilled to prepare breakfast for my family. My children had to wait, as I refilled the cylinder for Rs1,500,” said Hadayat Ahmed, a resident of Quaid-i-Azam Colony, near Army Aviation Base in Dhamial.

The gas was also in short supply in the suburban areas, where people used wood as fuel.

“We are thinking of buying LPG cylinders or collecting woods for fuel. One needs fuel to survive,” said Muhammad Awais, who lives at Asghar Mall scheme.

Anger reigned high among the residents, who said the long power outages in summer had been replaced with acute gas shortage in winter.

The worst hit were the commuters and public transporters as the CNG stations were allowed to sell the gas, but were not supplied with the commodity.

According to the load management plan for gas, the CNG stations in Islamabad and Rawalpindi region close up on Thursday morning
and the supply is resumed on Saturday evening every week.

But Sunday saw people waiting for hours as the gas pressure was too low in the morning and afternoon for the cars to be refuelled.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 21st, 2011.

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