Motorway travellers facing CNG problem
Staff Report

ISLAMABAD—Vehicle owners travelling on motorway particularly between Islamabad-Faisalabad section are facing serious problems of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) provision.
The only CNG station at Bhera Service Area providing fuel to thousands of vehicles plying on Lahore-Islamabad, Islamabad-Faisalabad sections and beyond falls short to meet requirement due to less pressure and mounting vehicles load. It is very rare that commuters find full pressure on this CNG station that force them to use petrol costing them much as compared to CNG.
Functioning since last four to five years, this station has bitterly failed to fully benefit the travellers having their own vehicles. “It is very seldom that we find full gas pressure on this station,” said Muhammad Ishaq, a frequent traveller between Islamabad and Faisalabad.
“It seldom serves the purpose of economy fuel as less gas pressure makes us travel on petrol for certain distance,” he added. He said mostly the pressure is between 120 and 140 bars and it is very rare that the pressure touches the prescribed 180-200 bars pressure. “When I got gas from the station a couple of days back, it only filled worth Rs. 90 gas instead of Rs.180 or Rs.200, despite that the cylinder had a few bars gas pressure,” he said. Another traveller Chaudhry Saleem said, after getting gas from Bhera CNG station, it is very rare that we may reach Faisalabad on gas.
“Most of time it exhausts near Pindi Bhattian or bit far, and rest 40 to 50 kilometers the drivers have to drive on petrol,” he added. “The same happens while coming to Islamabad from Faisalabad as the gas filled from Bhera ends near Chakri or even before it,” Saleem, a resident of Faisalabad, stated. It has been learnt that CNG is also supplied to Sukheki Service Area station from Bhera through tankers and as far as tanker is gas filled, the pressure remains very low.
Moreover, a tanker takes three to four hours to be filled to capacity and daily three to four tankers are gas-filled for the Sukheki station. It means that for 16 out of 24 hours, the pressure remains low and these 16 hours are the peak travelling hours. When asked about the low pressure a CNG station employee told that low pressure was due to gas filling into tanker for the Sukheki Service area gas station. “Yes, we send as many tankers to Sukheki station as required and one tanker takes around four hours to be filled to capacity that lessens pressure at the station,” he said on condition of anonymity.