Racing ahead
Racing ahead
in the Compressed Natural Gas (cng) race Pakistan seems to have left India behind. Figures show that Pakistan today boasts of more than 2,00,000 cng vehicles and 200 filling stations.
Around two years ago Pakistan had less than 1,00,000 cng vehicles, which have doubled today. The numbers are expected to increase in the next two years.
At present Pakistan is one of the world's largest cng users, ranked only third after Italy and Argentina. They now have plans to share the technical expertise with Iran to help them convert to cng. At a recent meeting with an Iranian delegation, Abdullah Yousuf, secretary, department of petroleum and natural resources of Pakistan declared the government's decision to exempt cng stations and vehicle conversions from import duty and sales tax for a period of five years.
The Hydrocarbon Development Institute of Pakistan (hdip) had introduced cng for vehicles in Pakistan as early as 1982. After the successful transfer of technology and demonstration of pilot stations by hdip at Karachi and Islamabad, the government formulated cng rules in 1992 in Pakistan and commercialised cng as an alternative motor fuel. It was on June 22, 2000 that Pakistan launched the second phase of cng with conversion of vehicles from diesel mode to cng.