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This article was first published 13 years ago

Gas shortage hits Mumbai; Taxis, autos off roads

Last updated on: March 15, 2011 19:14 IST

Image: Taxis parked on a Mumbai street

Commuters in Mumbai are having a hard time on Tuesday as the supply of Compressed Natural Gas in the city was hit after a service pipeline was badly damaged.

A natural-gas pipeline of the Gas Authority of India Limited, supplying gas to Mahanagar Gas at Wadala was damaged on Monday resulting in disruption of supply to various parts of the metropolis.

There are 1,00,000 autos and around 55,000 cabs in the city.

The supply of piped natural gas and compressed natural gas has been affected due to the incident, a press release said.

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Gas shortage hits Mumbai; Taxis, autos off roads

Image: An attendent at a CNG refilling station

It is estimated that gas supply would get normalised within 24-48 hours.

The pipeline was damaged by BMC labourers who were widening a nullah in RCF compound.

The gas pipeline was damaged during an ongoing work near a Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers plant at Wadala, the release said.

The CNG stations of MGL in the western, southern and central parts of Mumbai are likely to stay shut because of the low pressure in the pipeline due to low gas availability, it said.

MGL has two sources of natural gas, one at Wadala and another at Mahape in Navi Mumbai.

"Though the MGL is receiving gas through its City Gate Station at Mahape, due to technical constraints, the supply of gas through this station will only partially meet the total gas requirement of the metropolis," the release said.

Gas shortage hits Mumbai; Taxis, autos off roads


"MGL has activated its Emergency Response Plan and would ensure that supply to its domestic PNG consumers would be on priority without interruption," it said.

BEST spokesperson N Walawalkar said, "We have around 2500 CNG buses, and we will run all these on Tuesday. But if normal supply does not resume, some depots might suffer."

MGL, meanwhile, has activated its Emergency Response Plan.

"MGL is making all efforts to supply the required quantity of CNG to BEST buses," said a company spokesperson.