Lucknow: CNG crisis spells ordeal for van drivers, parents
With most of the vans remaining off the roads during the day, parents had to reschedule their appointments to ferry their children to school.
The CNG crisis affected school van service in Lucknow on Thursday as drivers had to spend at least five hours in queues outside fuel stations. Quite a few drivers didn’t turn up to pick up children and parents were not sure about resumption of service even on Friday, as many drivers cited difficulty in getting CNG.
With most of the vans remaining off the roads during the day, parents had to reschedule their appointments to ferry their children to school.
Long queues, erratic supply and long fill-up time resulted in a harrowing experience for consumers during their visit to CNG stations.
Currently, Lucknow has 11 operational CNG stations with a total production capacity of 1,00,000 kg per day against the daily demand of 1.5 lakh kg per day. There are 29,000 registered CNG vehicles in the state capital.
“Two of my vans have CNG and they will ferry students for the next two days. On Sunday, they will again be sent for refuelling,” said Javed, a driver and owner of four school vans.
He mentioned, “I do not know about the other two. If they get CNG by midnight, they will pick up students on Friday else the day after.”
“After waiting for five hours in queues outside CNG stations every day, I don’t get time with family. How long I can continue like this I don’t know,” lamented Shankar Singh, another van driver.
On the other hand, the CNG crisis is weighing heavy on parents also as they have to plan the day accordingly. “Dropping my son to school in the morning is not a big deal. But once I reach office, picking him up from there means skipping some of my appointments,” said Rakesh Sharma, who lives near Hussaidiya crossing and his son goes to a school in Hazratganj.
Parents suggested that school vans should be given preference at CNG stations till the crisis is over.
However, the officials of Green Gas said they cannot force the pump owners to form a separate queue for school vans by ignoring other vehicles.
“We are trying to open more dispensers to sort out the problem of long queues. Within three months, things will be on track,” said an official.