LAHORE: The Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL), during a crackdown against the users of gas compressors, disconnected as many as 1,000 commercial and domestic connections across the provincial capital since December 2015.
Under the SNGPL rules, connection cannot be restored before 7 days of removal of the meter, besides heavy fine imposed for violation of contract of connection between the consumer and the company.
SNGPL launched this drive on the complaints by the public affected due to the installation of compressors on connections around their neighbourhood which stopped or suspended the supply of gas to their homes in this current spell of acute shortage of gas.
As many as 16 special squads have been formed by the SNGPL management to nab the culprits across the city. The teams are inspecting the meters through sophisticated gadgets on the spot and after finding its unusual speed they are authorized to put it off and send to the SNGPL laboratory for checking tempering.
SNGPL Task Force against the gas theft head Sharafat Ali stated here on Sunday that heavy penalty would be imposed after finding positive report of tempering and unusual speed due to the compressors and generators. The sources added that there was an acute shortage of gas for the consumers and those who were using compressors actually getting the gas from the nearby connections that were illegal.
Terming the compressors as a very dangerous gadget, he added that not only these were sucking the gas from nearby connection but also were damaging the property of the SNGPL including the meters.
SNGPL urged the consumers to call to the company’s helpline to information about the compressors for the sake of helping SNGPL in stopping the illegal use of gas.
