QUETTA, March 21: The gas supply to Punjab and the NWFP was suspended from the Sui gas plant after a gas pipeline was blown up in Doli, some 20km from the Sui township, in the early hours of Tuesday. “It was a 30-inch-diameter pipeline through which gas was supplied to Punjab and the NWFP,” official sources told Dawn and added that unknown armed men planted an explosive device under the pipeline which blew around 2am.

Sources said the gas supply was immediately stopped from the Sui plant as the pipeline caught fire after the powerful explosion.

However, officials of the Sui Northern Gas Company claimed that the gas supply would not be affected to both the provinces as a huge quantity of gas was present in the pipeline.

“The gas supply will not be affected till repairing of the pipeline,” SNGC sources said, and added that after the fire had been controlled a crew of engineers and other staff concerned arrived there and started repairing the pipeline.

The sources said that the repairing and restoration of the gas supply would take more than 24 hours, and added that the SNGC had also made alternative arrangements for supplying gas.

However, shortage of gas was reported from many areas of Sariab on Tuesday afternoon even after repairing of a pipeline which had been blown up by miscreants on a section of the Quetta-Mastung Road on Monday.

Our Staff Reporter from Lahore adds: The Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited (SNGPL) stopped supply to the power and cement sectors after one of its pipelines was blown up near the Sui Gas Field on Tuesday.

SNGPL officials said that the blast ruptured the line at 1am. A 24-inch and a 30-inch pipeline run parallel at a distance of 15 feet from each other from the Sui field.

They said that the repair work was going on and hopefully its supply would be restored by Wednesday morning.