Pune: Shortage Of CNG Pumps In Lonavala Causing Inconvenience To Citizens

Vivek Patil

Lonavala, 8th September 2021: Citizens in Lonavala and rural areas around Lonavala are facing difficulty due to a shortage of CNG pumps.

With petrol and diesel prices skyrocketing, the trend has shifted to buying CNG vehicles. The government has also decided to encourage the purchase of CNG and battery-powered vehicles for the protection of the environment.

But, citizens with CNG vehicles have to travel to Kamshet or Khopoli to fill the gas. Even there, people have to stand in queue for hours, and many times the gas station runs out of CNG. People are forced to pay for petrol despite there being a CNG facility in the vehicle because of this problem.

The rickshaws and taxis running on CNG have lower fares. However, if it is a petrol vehicle, the fare is almost double. In Lonavala and rural areas, there are around 5,000 rickshaws and more than 2,000 tourist vehicles. Apart from this, when the number of private vehicles is also in the thousands, the citizens have to face inconvenience as CNG pumps are not available anywhere in the city or rural areas.

Many vehicles coming to Lonavala for tourism are also running on CNG. Many times on the roadway, the question, ‘hey ..where is the CNG pump near here?’, is frequently heard.

To avoid this inconvenience to the citizens, if the government provides CNG facilities at Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum pumps in Lonavala, it will be a great relief to the citizens.