Mumbai CNG disruption: Damaged pipeline restored; supply to resume after testing

Mumbai:

The damaged CNG pipeline in Mumbai, which disrupted the supply of gas in the city and adjacent areas, has finally been restored. Repair work on the damaged pipeline in Chembur has been completed and testing is currently underway. Once the testing is successfully completed, supply will be resumed and services will gradually return to normal.

CNG pumps across Mumbai saw long queues on Tuesday as supply was hit following damage to a major gas pipeline. Many stations ran out of CNG entirely, putting up notices to inform motorists. Since Monday night, taxi and auto-rickshaw drivers have been lining up to refuel.

The problem began on Sunday due to a third party damaging GAIL’s main gas supply pipeline located inside the RCF complex in Trombay. This incident restricted gas flow to Mahanagar Gas Limited’s (MGL) city gate station in Wadala.

On Monday evening, MGL announced that about 60 per cent of the 389 CNG stations in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region—roughly 225 pumps—were still operational and that full restoration was expected by Tuesday noon. 

"I've been waiting in the CNG pump queue since 4 am and I still don't know when my vehicle will be refilled, as there are scores of taxis ahead of me," PTI quoted a taxi driver, Sitaram Rajak, as saying.

Mumbai CNG pumps stopped working on Monday morning because of low gas pressure, the Petrol Dealers Association said. Some app-based taxi services switched temporarily to petrol, but most black-and-yellow cabs could not do so since they had removed their petrol option to cut maintenance costs. As a result, many of them had to stop operating.

BEST services hit due to CNG crunch

Sources, cited by PTI, within the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking said that a few of their CNG buses were delayed or had to shorten routes due to limited gas supply at certain depots. Officially, however, BEST stated that its services were running normally.