LAHORE - The problem of low gas pressure at homes has further aggravated in various areas of the city during last couple of days.
Increase in demand due to cold weather and damages to pipelines in construction areas of orange line project resulted cut in supply to various localities are the main reasons behind the problem. The domestic consumers of around half of the city are either without gas or there is low pressure at such level that they could hardly cook their food.
People complained that availability of warm water had increasingly become a distant dream due to the shortfall of natural gas. They lamented that despite the fact that the government had given domestic consumers top priority in the supply of gas but the reality was totally against.
The consumers in areas of Johar Town, Ali Town, Shahdara, Thoker Niaz Beg, Green Town, Township, Mughalpura, Ghari Shahu, Railways colonies, Mozang, Walled City are facing severe problems to cook food and get warm water to take bath at their homes.
But the SNGPL officials say that the company faces severe problem to meet the demand and supply gap in every winter owing to high rise in need of domestic and commercial sectors in the season. The company has more than five million consumers in both the sectors.
“The SNGPL needs more than 2,000 million cubic feet per day (MMCFD) to meet the demand of all sectors in both the provinces but the company has only 1450MMCFD gas in its network. It has existing shortfall of around 600MMCFD,” the official said. “Currently, the company provides gas to only domestic sector,” said an official of the SNGPL.
Harsh weather to stay: Blanketed by dense fog, plains of the country including Lahore remained in the grip of chilly weather yesterday with experts predicting the prevailing harsh weather conditions to persist during the next 2-3 days.
Dense fog affected flight operation, disrupted rail traffic besides hampering vehicular movement on inter and intra city routes including Motorway and National Highway from late night to the morning.
Lesser period of sunshine due to fog and snowfall over the hills caused decrease in the mercury level. Biting cold forced the people stay indoors wrapped in woolies and blankets. Excessive usage of heaters in the offices and at home led to low gas pressure in various parts of the City. In certain areas, women faced huge difficulties in cooking meals for their families.
Skardu remained the coldest place in the country where mercury dropped 11 degree Celsius below the freezing point. Minimum temperature in Astore was recorded -08C, Gupis -06C, Parachinar and Hunza -05C, Kalam -04C, Quetta, Gilgit, Dir, Kalat and Rawalakot -03C, Malamjabba -02C, Murree, Zhob and Dalbandin -01C. Maximum and minimum temperature in the City was recorded 13C and 06C respectively. Relative humidity in the evening was recorded 71 per cent.
According to the experts, continental air is prevailing over most parts of the country. Local meteorological department has forecast mainly cold and dry weather for most parts of the country during the next couple of days. Foggy conditions will continue in plains Punjab, Peshawar division and upper Sindh during night and morning hours.