Gurgaon: Damage to PNG pipeline hits supply at sectors 21, 22, 23
Residents claimed that while the pipeline was damaged on Thursday evening, the HCGL deployed workers to fix the leak on Friday morning
A sudden damage to the distribution pipeline led to the suspension of piped natural gas (PNG) supply to over 3,000 customers across sectors 21, 22 and 23 on Thursday evening. Restoration work by the Haryana City Gas Limited (HCGL) was on till the filing of this report.
The HCGL supplies PNG to the city.
An HCGL official said that the damage was reported somewhere on the Sector 21/22 dividing road and was caused during unauthorised digging by a private company to lay underground optical fibre cables. A water pipeline was damaged, disrupting morning supply in the area.
Rahul Chopra, chief executive officer, HCGL, said, “I spoke to my men on duty and was informed that workers of a private company damaged our PNG line and a water pipeline while digging the road to lay underground cables. We immediately stopped supply and started restoration work. Work is still under way and we hope normal supply would be restored at the earliest.”
“While the PNG pipeline suffered leakage on Thursday evening, the HCGL started restoration work on Friday morning. While digging the road to plug the leak, the HCGL men damaged the main water pipeline as well. Something similar happened in June and October as well. This just shows the callousness of the HCGL officials,” said Bhim Singh Yadav, a resident of Sector 22, adding that with the suspension of PNG supply, he had to boy food from a nearby eatery to feed his family on Friday.
In June, residents of Sector 23 lodged a complaint with the district administration claiming that an accidental damage to the PNG pipeline led to a gas leak in the entire area. Again, in October, the PNG pipeline developed a leakage in Sector 21/22, leading to a supply cease for two days.
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“HCGL does not have an advance system to locate leakage in the underground PNG pipeline and it often takes days to plug the leak in the event of damage. There was damage to the PNG pipeline in October and now it has happened again. The HCGL should own up to the damage and shouldn’t deflect the blame on someone else,” SS Yadav, a resident of Sector 23, said.
However, sources said that the HCGL will write to the district administration seeking action against the company, who they claimed, caused damage to the pipeline during nighttime digging.
Vikas Malik, executive engineer, MCG, said, “I have sought a report from the area engineer on the damage to our water pipeline.”