CNG would be available in Punjab seven days a week

Lahore: Ghiyas Abdullah Paracha, Chairman Supreme Council APCNGA on Friday said the federal government has started fulfilling its pre-polls promise of relieving masses of queues on the CNG outlets.

Natural gas would be provided to all the CNG filling stations across Punjab during seven days a week for specific period while flow would continue uninterrupted during Sundays, he said.

Decision has also been reached to reduce duration of gas load shedding in Sindh for 24 hours while load shedding across the country would be cut gradually, he added.

Ghiyas Paracha said in a statement that the decision would help Rs 450 billion CNG industry which was facing undue stress since years and provide relief to tens of millions of masses.

The leader of the CNG sector said that 3300 owners of the CNG stations, 3.7 million owners of CNG converted vehicles, hundreds of thousands of workers and 80 million people who use Public Service Vehicles on daily bases are highly grateful to the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Petroleum Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.

He informed that APCNGA and government have agreed in principal over all the issues and that petroleum minister would soon announce all the details.

The decision to this effect has been reached after long process of consultation which included petroleum minister, other top government officials, Ghiyas Abdullah Paracha, Chairman Supreme Council APCNGA, Central Chairman APCNGA Pervaiz Khattak, APCNGA’s Punjab Chairman Mian Shahid, APCNGA’s Sindh Chairman Shabbir Suleman, Senior Vice Chairman Brig. (retd) Iftikhar, Abid Hayat and Captain (r) Shuja.

Paracha said that everyday provision of CNG in Punjab would be on the experimental basis which would also reduce problems of CNG operators while reducing pollution and oil import bill. He added that it would improve supply of gas and electricity during the peak hours which is a great service on the part of the government.

He said that APCNGA representatives will have a meeting with MD SNGPL in Lahore on Monday to finalise the new schedule.