RAWALPINDI, Oct 5: Though belatedly, the Punjab government has decided to take action against illegal CNG conversion centres to check gas cylinder explosions.

In this regard, it has given 15-day deadline to the City District Government Rawalpindi (CDGR) to provide complete data of gas filling stations and kits installation workshops to ascertain whether they had the licence of Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra).

A senior official of CDGR told Dawn on Friday that the provincial government wanted to close all conversion centres running their workshop without the authorisation from Ogra.

He said that there were a number of filling stations providing kits installation facility illegally. “In many cases, workshop owners were technically unqualified to install CNG cylinders and kits,” he said.

He said after several meetings with the experts, the provincial government came to know that improper installation of the kits was responsible for cylinders explosion.

He said that the district administration had not had complete data of the CNG filling stations and workshops. For this purpose, he said, the district administration will start the survey and report as soon as possible.

When contacted, District Coordination Officer (DCO) Saqib Zafar said that he had directed the authorities concerned to conduct the survey of the district and compile a data of such CNG filling stations which also provided services for installation of CNG cylinders and kits.

He said that the administration had data of all the CNG filling stations but it required the data of the workshop in and outside the CNG filling stations across the district. He said that after the completion of the survey, the action would be taken against the illegal outlets.