LAHORE, Jan 31: The Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Ltd (SNGPL) announced on Thursday that it was resuming gas supply initially to nearly 100 industrial units in Punjab and the NWFP.
A decision in this connection was taken in view of the availability of extra gas owing to improvement in weather and closure of 275 CNG stations.Addressing a press conference after a meeting of the board of directors, SNGPL managing director Rashid Lone said the supply to all closed industrial units would be improved gradually.
He said the decision to restore the supply was taken after a meeting with Lahore and Faisalabad industrialists, including representatives of the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association, who demanded resumption of gas supply to the textile industry suspended on Jan 26.
The SNGPL could spare 30mcf on Thursday, half of which would be given to textile mills in Punjab and Gadoon Amazai and Hayatabad in the NWFP. The remaining would go to the general industry, he said.
He said that industrialists had started protesting after the closure of supply to their units despite the fact that a section of them was to receive only nine-month supply in a year under a contract signed with them in 1983.
The supply remains suspended from December to February because of the increase in demand by domestic users in winter.
During this period, he said, the industrial units were required to switch over to oil. But their owners closed them on the pretext of high prices of oil, demanding resumption of gas supply to meet foreign orders and to put their labour at work.
Mr Lone said the government had suspended supply to 275, of the 1,500 CNG stations for three days on Wednesday. The closed stations were mainly located in densely-populated residential areas and their gas had been diverted to domestic consumers.
He said people were being urged to use petrol in their vehicles so that the industry could function with gas.
Replying to a question, he said the closure of CNG stations made it possible to provide gas to some localities in Lahore like Samanabad, Harbanspura and Cantonment.
He said the country had stopped importing petrol because of the mushrooming of CNG stations in which an investment of Rs50 billion had been made.He said a meeting with President Musharraf on Wednesday had decided to standardise home gas appliances in one year.
It was proposed to authorise the SNGPL and the SSGPL to provide standardised appliances like geysers, stoves and gas heaters to consumers. He said the government had also decided to import liquid gas and supply it to Karachi, shifting its supplies to Lahore and Peshawar.
