Seminar on safe use: ‘CNG vehicles safer than petrol, but only when used with caution’
Experts stress on making checking the quality of cylinders and kits.
KARACHI:
More than 300,000 vehicles on the roads are using substandard Compress Natural Gas (CNG) cylinders and kits which is an alarming situation considering that almost 2,000 people were killed in cylinder blasts across the country last year.
These figures were shared at the seminar, Safe use of CNG, organised by the Helpline Trust on Wednesday.
Helpline Trust Chairperson Hamid Maker, referencing to a report, said that the figure of 2,000 people killed last year was four times more than the number of people killed in drone attacks in that period. “The figure is likely to double this year as the government has not taken any concrete steps in this regard.”
Sahib Din Khowaja, senior research engineer at the Hydrocarbon Development Institute of Pakistan, described the method to check leakage in CNG cylinder and kit at home - put soap water on the valve and the pipe that connect the cylinder with the engine. “CNG cylinders are bullet and fire proof. Most of the accidents take place due to leakage from the high pressure pipe that connects the cylinder with the engine.”
According to the engineer, such accidents usually occur in winter when people close windows and the gas catches fire if there is a spark.
More than 300 illegal CNG conversion centres are operating , out of which only seven are maybe legal, he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 13th, 2012.
More than 300,000 vehicles on the roads are using substandard Compress Natural Gas (CNG) cylinders and kits which is an alarming situation considering that almost 2,000 people were killed in cylinder blasts across the country last year.
These figures were shared at the seminar, Safe use of CNG, organised by the Helpline Trust on Wednesday.
Helpline Trust Chairperson Hamid Maker, referencing to a report, said that the figure of 2,000 people killed last year was four times more than the number of people killed in drone attacks in that period. “The figure is likely to double this year as the government has not taken any concrete steps in this regard.”
Sahib Din Khowaja, senior research engineer at the Hydrocarbon Development Institute of Pakistan, described the method to check leakage in CNG cylinder and kit at home - put soap water on the valve and the pipe that connect the cylinder with the engine. “CNG cylinders are bullet and fire proof. Most of the accidents take place due to leakage from the high pressure pipe that connects the cylinder with the engine.”
According to the engineer, such accidents usually occur in winter when people close windows and the gas catches fire if there is a spark.
More than 300 illegal CNG conversion centres are operating , out of which only seven are maybe legal, he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 13th, 2012.