ISLAMABAD, Aug 16: Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) stations being set up at Chakri service area on the Lahore-Islamabad Motorway (M-2) will start operations by the end of this year.

This was stated by the director-general of Hydrocarbon Development Institute of Pakistan (HDIP), Hilal A. Raza, while talking to APP.

The HDIP director-general said the CNG facility, under the private sector, had already been made available on both sides of the Motorway at Bhera and Sukheki service areas.

After establishment of these CNG stations, the traffic volume has increased on the Motorway and as many as 600 vehicles are using this facility daily, he added.

Mr Raza said a new concept of online and offline or mother and daughter stations had been introduced for the first time in the country. The mother station set up at Bhera service area is provided natural gas through pipelines laid by the Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Company (SNGPL), while the daughter station at Sukheki service area is getting gas from the mother station through containers specially imported for this purpose, he added.

The director-general told the agency that Pakistani engineers indigenously completed the project at a cost of Rs109 million.

He said establishment of CNG stations on the Motorway was the longstanding demand of the public but the project failed to materialize earlier due to some technical reasons. The SNGPL, National Highway Authority and other related departments managed to overcome the obstacles of the project and fulfilled the genuine public demand, he added.