Govt urged to help ‘restore’ gas supply to industrial units

KARACHI: President Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI) Mohammed Tariq Yousuf, while expressing deep concern over suspension of gas supply to the industries in Karachi, has urged the government to issue strict directives for immediate restoration of gas supply with ample pressure to all the industries of Karachi.

Karachi has been facing severe gas shortage and there was no help from any other source whereas as per SSGC’s statement, gas supply has gone down to 720 mmcfd from 810 mmcfd which was originally 1000 mmcfd.

In this scenario, the industries have to go through severe gas load shedding which was totally unacceptable and intolerable.

The industries cannot function without gas so somebody at the helm of the affairs has to take cognizance of the situation and see what was happening, he added.

He said that feasibility or viability of the company gets badly disturbed due to suspension of gas supply and the cost of production rises.

If a production unit, which usually runs for eight hours a day, is only able to run for two hours, then the cost of production becomes very high, which results in making the finished goods uncompetitive.

Tariq Yousuf while vehemently condemning SSGC for suspending gas supply to the Captive Power Plants (CPPs) of the general industries, said that this was a highly deplorable move as it has intensified the problems for the industries who simply cannot depend on unreliable electricity being supplied by the KE.

“CPPs provide reliable electricity to general industries which helps in keeping the high-tech machineries involved in the entire production line operational. It is a well known fact that even minor electricity fluctuation for few micro seconds terribly disrupts the entire production line, damages the pricey machineries and causes heavy monetary losses during production,” he said.

Keeping in view all these facts, it was very crucial to immediately restore gas supplies to the CPPs of general industries so that the hardships being faced in the ongoing stiffest environment could be minimized to some extent, he added.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023