PESHAWAR, March 2: Government departments have failed to comply with the NWFP governor’s order to convert around 500 vehicles into Compress-Natural-Gas-powered, owing to lack of financial resources, Dawn has learnt reliably.

Sources in the provincial Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said on Saturday that the agency had recently directed the general administration department (GAD) and the finance department to convert all official vehicles into CNG-powered with immediate affect.

The decision regarding the conversion of petrol-powered vehicles was taken to reduce the level of toxic pollutants in the provincial metropolis and to save money as the CNG is cheaper.

According to the official over 500 official vehicles were running on petrol in the province.

“The proposed scheme is very cost-effective and Rs15 million is required to fit CNG kits in 500 vehicles,” the official said but added that financial constraints were hindering the project.

Apart from financial hurdles, the government will have to construct its own CNG station, as per Accountant General’s office’s directives, all the departments concerned would get fuel from the Benevolent Fund Station only, where the facility is not available.

In October 2000 the governor had issued directives to all the provincial departments and their attached departments for the conversion of the vehicles.

The EPA director general served reminders on the GAD and the finance department last week asking them to implement the decision.