Saturday, 29 JUNE 2024 | PNS | DEHRADUN
The demand for Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) has surged in Dehradun due to an increase in tourist footfalls during the months of June and July, petrol/CNG pump employees said. They claimed that in the normal days the local demand for CNG is minimal. However, with the increased number of tourists, predominantly from Haryana and Delhi, the demand for CNG in Dehradun has risen by about 50 per cent. Consequently, drivers and vehicle owners are lining up early in the morning, enduring long waiting times to refuel their vehicles with CNG.
Notably, the current price of CNG in Dehradun is Rs 88.50 per kilogramme. The low demand for CNG has seen a significant rise during the tourist season, leading to a notable increase in the crowd of vehicles at CNG/petrol pumps in Dehradun. An employee at the Sahastradhara CNG/petrol pump Ravi Kumar said that he has noted an increase in the demand for CNG within two months. The local residents typically have a lower demand for CNG. However, with the onset of the tourist season in Dehradun, which usually begins in June and July, the demand for CNG has risen by an average of 50 per cent. He added that drivers of tourist vehicles are now requesting CNG, even enduring long waits in queues to refuel.
Another employee at the CNG/petrol pump Vijay Mehta noted that during normal and off-peak tourist seasons, an average of 1,200 kilogrammes of CNG is refuelled in vehicles daily. However, with the start of the tourist season, an average of 2,500 kilogrammes of CNG is refuelled daily, especially in vehicles from Haryana and Delhi, he said.
The president of the Dehradun Petrol Pump Dealers Association Ashish Mittal told this correspondent that there has been a noticeable increase in the demand for CNG at petrol pumps in Dehradun within the past two months. He attributed this rise in demand to the influx of tourists from Delhi and Haryana. Mittal stated that the current demand for CNG in Dehradun has surged by an average of 50 per cent compared to regular days, causing tourists to wait in long queues for refuelling. He added that waiting in queues for a long time is also attributed to the factor of technology. There are two types of methods for refuelling CNG in vehicles: offline and online. CNG can be refuelled easily with pipes in the online method, but it takes time in the offline method. Currently, in Dehradun, there are around 10 CNG petrol pumps and all of them are using the offline method for refuelling, he said.
