CNG buses - not again

Pakistans Ministry of Environment has arguably been the lowest profile ministry - but it has been in the mix of things, of late. The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) has cleared the CNG buses project - worth Rs5 billion to bring on another 8000 new CNG buses in the urban centers of the country. The public-private partnership based project will be financed by the environmental ministry.
The funds would be provided by the government to subsidize the private investors as the Rs5 billion would be utilized to meet the interest component of the buses over the five years lease tenure.
Pakistans energy woes are well reported and it is no secret that burning the all important fuel for the transportation sector is highly uncalled for, in an energy deficient country.
The ongoing gas load management reminds everyone of the acute gas shortage Pakistan faces - especially in the winters. To add to the agony, Pakistans gas reserves do not show a promising picture either, as they are fast depleting and would cater for not more than 17 more years.
CNG consumption in the transport sector has been on a rapid rise, as its share in the consumption pie has gone up to 6 percent from a mere 1 percent five years ago. As they say, someones gain is anothers loss - and the loser in this case is the power sector which has suffered a great deal at the expense of the CNG boom, as its consumption share in the pie has dwindled from 39 percent five years back to a modest 33 percent.
The yesteryears policy for allowing CNG as a transportation fuel was wrong - but two wrongs do not make a right, therefore shelving the CNG industry is certainly not the way out as it is the bread earner of some 36,000 people. Moreover, no country in the world has more CNG based vehicles and a massive amount of roughly $2.5 billion has been invested in the sector so far.
But, reading through the Ecnec and Planning Commissions reports leaves one with a sour taste in the mouth - as both talk about encouraging the CNG sector. As if these 8,000 new buses weren enough, the Ecnec talks about converting the diesel based buses to CNG as well. Imagine a cleaner and a greener Pakistan but at what cost?
It will probably be at the cost of industrial production or the power generation as the petroleum ministry has been asked to ensure a plan for uninterrupted gas supply throughout the year to the mega CNG bus project.
All of it could still be explainable had it been of any benefit to the end consumer. It should be recalled that the CNG was promoted to provide a cheaper alternative fuel for the masses besides the idea of reducing pollution. But the reality is that the CNG buses actually charge much higher fares from the passengers instead of providing them the benefit of the cheaper fuel used.
One may argue that the comfort level in the CNG buses is superior to the conventional buses - but that is not the case either as none of the CNG buses run on seat-to-seat basis, which raises questions on such high fares charged. The only ones who benefit are probably the private owners, who run vehicles which are heavily subsidized by the government, use cheaper fuel and charge higher fares. It is too high a cost for a slightly better environment.