Weekend rush ups CNG demand, leaves long queues at pumps

As autos and taxis queued up at CNG pump stations, commuters were left stranded waiting to hail autos and cabs during peak office hours

Mumbai The long weekend rush exiting the city starting Thursday night impacted daily commuters on Friday morning as Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) stations across Mumbai faced a shortage of supply. As autos and taxis queued up at CNG pump stations, commuters were left stranded waiting to hail autos and cabs during peak office hours.

According to a statement released by Mahanagar Gas Limited, which provides CNG across the city, the vehicular traffic leaving the city for the upcoming long weekend pushed the demand for CNG (HT File)

“It took me almost 20 minutes to hail an auto from my home on Friday morning. On other days, I get an auto within a minute. Usually, I take a train to my college in Vile Parle, but had to depend on auto as I was running late for a class,” said Priyanka Singh (20), a resident of Malad and a third-year BMM student of UPG College, Vile Parle.

According to a statement released by Mahanagar Gas Limited, which provides CNG across the city, the vehicular traffic leaving the city for the upcoming long weekend pushed the demand for CNG. “Owing to festivities, holidays and approaching extended weekend, there has been a significant increase in vehicular movement. Such enhanced traffic coupled with congestion due to heavy rains has led to an unexpected increase in CNG demand,” said the statement.

Nilesh Sable (49), a taxi driver plying in Sion, said, “I tried filling gas at night but the gas station was shut, so I had to go back to the pump on Friday morning and wait for three hours for my turn to fill gas. There were long queues and many auto and taxi drivers decided not to ply on Friday due to the shortage.” He added that post noon, the situation improved slightly.

According to MGL officials, the increased demand met its peak on Thursday evening—the terminals at Wadala, Ambernath, Taloja and Mahape were most affected. “Due to the long distance of these gas stations from the main centres, many pumps in these areas had a lower pressure of CNG gas, leading to higher time to fill gas tanks,” said an officer on condition of anonymity.

“Only those vehicles that had full tanks were found on roads confidently on Friday, the rest of us had to park our vehicles at home. Waiting in such a long queue outside gas stations with no idea whether gas will be available made no sense so many of us decided to take the day of which will impact our earnings,” said Sharad Surve (42), an auto driver from Chembur.

The statement released by Mahanagar Gas Limited on Friday further stated, “This sudden spike in demand on the heels of limited supply resulted in a reduction of network pressure at extreme ends leading to tripping of a few CNG stations due to low pressure. MGL is taking steps to augment gas supplies by contracting for additional Market Determined priced gas to maintain system hydraulics.”