Compressed Natural Bomb (CNG=>CNB)

     What is happening in Pakistan? People are dying of Hunger, Disease, Accidents, Bomb Blasts, parents killing their children and children killing their parents, husbands killing wives and wives killing husbands. Were these sources not enough to end a human life, that a new one came to the scene, called CNG Cylinder Bomb. Its not less than a catastrophe that 51 deaths have been reported, due to CNG Cylinder explosions, during the last 11 days.

   

     With the Frequency of Such incidents increasing day by day, the question arises that who is responsible for these incidents and who should take what actions to stop them. Currently, about 2.5 million Vehicles are running on the roads with CNG Cylinder and with this number Pakistan has become the largest CNG consumer as a fuel. By the way its 3 times bigger than India which has 8 times more vehicles on its roads than Pakistan.  

     It was stated in Economic Survey of Pakistan 2010-11 that "In an effort to reduce dependency on expensive imported fuels as well as to improve the environment the use of CNG in Vehicles has been encouraged". So, its the government policy being pursued to use CNG as a Fuel but this policy, like all other policies, was developed without taking into account some critical factors:

1. Rate of growth of Vehicles.
2. No laws to regulate the CNG kit fitting.
3. No Quality controls
4. Consumption and Production trends of CNG
5. Alternate Best uses of CNG
6. Short term Approach
7. Hasty decisions
8. Zero consideration of Environmental effects
9. Health and Safety Hazards etc..

     There is a saying that "A man reaps what he sows". That is the case with us as we are reaping what our Government sowed when they decided to use CNG as fuel. This could have been a sensible decision had it been taken after thoughtful deliberations and with honest and responsible and Long-term approach. But unfortunately it was the other way round. Now the government, instead of making another wrong decision in haste, should consider all the available solutions to this problem with a long term vision in their minds. Lets have a brief look at what things can be done to resolve or at least simplify this problem.

• Firstly, The Government can completely Ban the use of CNG in Vehicles and it may give a time frame of say 3-4 months to the people to convert their vehicles from CNG to any other source fuel. By doing so the CNG saved will become available to the Industry. Mr. Lukman in hs program "Khari Baat" quoted some figures which were very interesting. He said that if all the vehicles in Rawalpindi and Islamabad are converted to CNG, we can save 1 million dollars annually but if all of them stop using CNG and only Industry uses that CNG it can generate a revenue of about 38 million dollars annually. Such a policy will put an extra burden of about 5 rupees per km of millage, which can be reduced by giving subsidy out of the revenues generated.

• The second option could be to make it compulsory for everyone to get his Cylinders checked properly. This plan can have a time frame of  4-5 months, after which CNG stations will only fill CNG in properly checked and certified Cylinders. By doing so, it will discourage the use of old, expired and dangerous Cylinders which are always a potential threat to valuable lives. Benefits which will accrue will include safety of passengers traveling in vehicles and improvement in quality of traveling services. Down side of such a policy might be that new cylinders will get dearer as a result of this policy and an element of corruption may set in if the certification process is not regulated with proper checks and balances.

• The third option, Government can think about, is a mix of the above two strategies i.e. the Government can Ban the use of CNG in Private vehicles and provide CNG only to the public transporters and making it compulsory for them to get their Cylinders certified by competent authorities. This strategy will not only eliminate the threat to precious lives but also make extra CNG available to the Industry. The inconvenience cause to general public will be much less as compared to the above two strategies.

  Whatever has to be done, should be done quickly before it takes more Innocent lives.