LAHORE: Consumers in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have started facing the worst spells of low gas pressure.

Senior officials of the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) say the situation may worsen in the coming days in case the gas shortfall continues to swell in the domestic sector with persistence of harsh weather.

At present, various Punjab and KP’s cities and towns, including Lahore, Peshawar, Sheikhupura and Faisalabad, are facing either extremely low gas pressure or no-gas situation.

In Lahore, localities like Township, Gulberg, Valencia Town, Samanabad, Walled City, Mughalpura, Sodiwal, Gulshan-i-Ravi, Wahdat Colony, Mustafa Town, Iqbal Town, Chauburji, Riwaz Garden, Jain Mandir, Lakshmi, Kot Lakhpat, Green Town, Faisal Town, Garden Town, Khan Colony and several other areas linking Multan Road, Wahdat Road, Canal Road, Ferozepur Road, Jail Road, GT Road and The Mall face low gas pressure to the extent that cooking is not possible.

In Peshawar too, the situation in many residential and commercial localities, including Warsik Road, Gulbahar, Hayatabad and Faqeerabad, is no different while similar is the state of affairs in localities like Gulistan Colony, Akbar Chowk and Mansoorabad in Faisalabad.

Officials say the system faces an overall gas shortfall of over 1400mmcfd, including 250mmcfd in the domestic sector.

“Since the gas shortfall has touched 250mmcfd in the domestic sector alone, we have devised a pilot plan to at least ensure provision of gas to consumers during peak hours (morning, noon/afternoon and evening). The officials concerned have started implementing this strategy under the low management plan,” SNGPL Managing Director Arif Hameed told Dawn on Thursday.

When asked about the expected suspension of gas to the industry, especially the textile sector, in the prevailing situation, he said since providing gas to industry was the government’s decision, the SNGPL might recommend the government to allow it to suspend the gas to industry if the situation worsened further in the coming days.

He said the extensive use of geysers and heaters by domestic consumers in cold weather caused gas shortfall in the system which led to low pressure.

Meanwhile, the SNGPL awarded a cash prize on Thursday to a security guard for foiling a bid of three terrorists to blow up a 30-inch diameter pipeline measuring 400-feet in Rahim Yar Khan.

Guard Muhammad Bilal, according to SNGPL’s media affairs department, was on night duty on Dec 14 when at about 4.45am he took notice of some suspicious noise near the pipeline (Sadiq Canal/A-3 point).

He reportedly rushed to the spot, assessed the situation without any error, cut off the wires of bombs planted to blow up the pipeline, a spokesman explained in a statement.

He said the guard was awarded cash prize by the Rahim Yar Khan administration for taking risk of his life for the sake of the state-owned asset.

“The SNGPL managing director has given him Rs100,000 cash prize, appreciating his boldness and sincerity,” the spokesman said.

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2014