Model CNG Station Costing Rs150m for Karachi

ISLAMABAD: The government is to set a model mega CNG station in Karachi at the cost of Rs150.6 million to promote the CNG buses.

The project to be executed by the Hydrocarbon Development Institute of Pakistan (HDIP) is expected to be operational by the end of 2010.

‘The basic idea to establish a model mega CNG station is to encourage private sector to start setting up CNG stations for buses in future,’ said Hilal A Raza, director general HDIP.

He said that Karachi needed around 4,000 dedicated CNG buses and this demonstration would help establishment of CNG stations by the private sectors. Karachi will require around 15-16 mega CNG stations to provide fuel to the CNG buses. The planned mega station to be established would be sufficient for refuelling 200 to 250 CNG buses.

The working paper of the project said that the model CNG station would be equipped with around 4,000 to 4,500 cubic meters per hour compressor capacity and six mass flow dual hose dispensing units with two compressors around 2,000 cubic meter/hour capacity to refuel 12 buses at a time.

A petroleum ministry official said that the CNG stations were first established by the HDIP in country that encouraged the private sector to enter the sector. Currently the HDIP is operating four CNG refuelling stations each in Islamabad, Quetta, Peshawar and Lahore.

Currently, Pakistan has the largest CNG industry in the world but it is limited to the petrol-run vehicles,’ the ministry official said.

The official said that the government was pursuing the policy to introduce CNG-based public transport to reduce diesel consumption, which is imported at a heavy cost.

The project is being introduced in Karachi as there is an urgent need for improving the air quality in the mega city and the land for this project is being provided by the Sindh government and the City District Government Karachi.

Despite repeated efforts by the government the project to introduce CNG buses has failed to take off since 2006, when the federal cabinet had approved the summary regarding replacement of diesel with CNG in public transport buses.

The aim of project initiated by the ministry of petroleum and natural resources was to replace the existing fleet of privately operated buses, mini-buses and wagons with dedicated CNG vehicles in ten major cities.

In line with the cabinet decision, the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (ECNEC) had also approved a private-public partnership environment friendly public transport system in Oct 2007 for 8,000 CNG buses.

Currently, the bulk of diesel consumed in the country is met through imports and according to the official figures the transport sector consumed 7.5 million tons of HSD during the last fiscal year.