LAHORE: After a three-month hiatus, the supply of compressed natural gas (CNG) started on Friday but only around 180 out of a total 300 stations started operation in Lahore region as the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited has disconnected the rest on a payment dispute.

According to SNGPL officials, all those stations whose bills were cleared were allowed to operate. However, the station owners claimed the court had declared the gas infrastructure development cess (GIDC) illegal, and the company was disconnecting connections on the basis of illegal cess.

According to Gyas Piracha of the CNG Association, the company has included the GIDC in the bills and asked the station owners to produce individual stay orders instead of a blanket court decision.

“This is totally an illegal act on this account alone. The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) had also allowed SNGPL to restore 30 per cent supply to industry till March 6. The company is, however, still supplying gas to the industry and depriving the CNG sector of its share. This adds to the illegality of the decision,” he said.

Long queues were witnessed at all those stations which started supplying CNG on Friday, with the people heaving a sigh of relief that gas supply provided them from the exorbitant oil prices.

“These were the really three tough months when oil touched a peak price of Rs115 per litre and gas simply went missing,” says Malik Iftikhar of Samanabad.