ISLAMABAD, Aug 16 : In view of upcoming Eidul Fitr the government has announced that compressed natural gas (CNG) will be available to motorists on this Friday (today) and Saturday, relaxing the loadshedding for two days.

The CNG Association has expressed gratitude to the petroleum ministry for accepting their request to reduce the loadshedding during Eid days.

In routine, loadshedding at CNG stations is carried out in northern Punjab and the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, while there are different days for other regions of Punjab.

“We are thankful to the government that due to Eid holidays there will be no CNG loadshedding from Aug 17 to Aug 22,” said Ghyas Paracha, chairman of All Pakistan CNG Association.

The consumers were expecting that there would be no CNG loadshedding this week. The decision, however, came late on Thursday night and the gas stations started opening up after midnight.

“I was disappointed to see the CNG stations shut on Thursday morning,” said Mohammad Azhar, a resident of the capital city.

The situation resulted in exchange of hot words at some CNG stations, as consumes continue to stop there expecting relaxation in loadshedding.

“We had to pacify many angry customers especially those coming in the afternoon while on way back from their offices,” said Raja Wasim, owner of a CNG station at Sitara Market. “Many of those who wanted to leave Islamabad for their native areas were really upset,” he said.

Mr Wasim said that the government could have relaxed the CNG loadshedding from Thursday, as it would have timely facilitated the public.

“We had even submitted a written request in this regard to the regulator and the ministry,” he said.

However, the officials said that the CNG loadshedding had been relaxed from Friday (today) when people would start leaving for their hometowns. They said that Thursday was a working day and they did not want to cut down gas supplies to either power producers or industries.