Plan to set up 50 new CNG stations by December as demand goes up
Wednesday, 6 June 2007
FE Report
The Energy and Mineral Resources Division (EMRD) is mulling a plan to set up fifty new compressed natural gas (CNG) filling stations across the country by December next to cope with the sharp rise in demand for CNG, especially after the recent hike in gasoline prices.
The number of CNG-run vehicles is increasing at a rate of over 3,000 per month after the government hiked fuel prices in the first week of April by 15-21 per cent, a senior EMRD official said.
As CNG is much cheaper than fuel oil, many owners are converting their petrol-run vehicles into CNG-run ones, the EMRD official added.
The price of one cubic metre CNG is now Tk 8.50 while the prices of octane and petrol are Tk 67 per litre and Tk 65 per litre respectively.
To cross the same distance, a CNG-run vehicle consumes fuel worth Tk 90 while a petrol or octane-run vehicle consumes fuel worth Tk 650, said an owner of a CNG-run vehicle, which earlier was fired by petrol.
Currently the country has a total of 160 CNG filling stations, of which 91 are inside Dhaka and the remaining 69 are outside Dhaka.
The government in April last cancelled plots of 21 entrepreneurs for their failure to set up CNG fuelling stations within the stipulated time.
The communications ministry also served show-cause notices on the allottees of 45 government plots to explain why their land allocation would not be cancelled for their failure to set up the CNG filling stations wthin the stipulated time.
Sources said, according to the land allocation policy for CNG stations, the lessees must set up their CNG stations within six months after receiving the allotment from the government.
The policy also says, 'The government can revoke the land allocation, if the lessees fail to set up the refuelling stations within the stipulated period.'
The government allocated the plots on lands of the Roads and Highways Department and the Bangladesh Railway for setting up CNG filling stations more than a year ago.
The communications ministry has allotted 170 plots for setting up the CNG stations on the RHD and railway lands since 2003.
Currently, a total of 108,000 vehicles are running on CNG across the country, of which over 66,000 are converted and 38,000 are imported CNG vehicles.
The CNG-run vehicles are consuming over 33.78 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) of gas against the country's total gas production of 1600 mmcfd.