By Saad Hasan
KARACHI: Conversion of petrol vehicles to Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) fuel has increased in recent years, but people are still unaware that law binds them to get their CNG cylinders checked from a government-designated facility.
CNG Rules 1992 has made it mandatory for owners of all CNG-fitted vehicles to get clearance from Hydrocarbon Development Institute of Pakistan (HDIP) after due testing of cylinders.
“People are indifferent to this requirement. Most of them approach (for verification) only after encountering a problem,” an HDIP official in Karachi, who wished not to be named, told The News.
He cautioned that by law every in-use cylinder ought to be checked after five years.
However, people have not developed a conscience for their safety mainly because there have not been panic-causing number of reported incidents involving a CNG cylinder, experts argue. They say that no matter how good the quality of a cylinder may be, there always remain some inherited cracks in the pressurised vessels.
As the CNG craze took off in tandem with rise in gasoline prices during the past few years there is little possibility for a car with a CNG-cylinder to be at risk for now. But with continuous use the chances of leakage increases.
With over a million cars now running on CNG, government still seems least concerned about ensuring safety of the people as there is only one HDIP lab in Karachi for physical inspections of these cylinders.
When this scribe visited the HDIP laboratory at Korangi, a couple of weeks ago, there were a few staffers and a few cylinders were being attended to in an open space behind one of the buildings.
“The cylinders come for checks in a particular season,” the HDIP official explained, adding: “There are truckloads of cylinders awaiting inspection at the moment.”
He said that HDIP has posted banners at gas stations advising people in this regard. However, people consider this procedure, which takes 3-4 days and costs Rs550, a waste of time and are unwilling to acquire the verification.
It is, therefore, important that government devise methods for ensuring compliance with the rules especially when substandard CNG kits are available in market at relatively cheap rates.