KARACHI: Sui Southern Gas Company has implemented various measures to streamline, expedite and enhance the effectiveness of rehabilitation function of its distribution network and completed record 735-km rehabilitation works in FY 2022-23.
“Managing the ditching and back fillings contracts, an area causing serious delays in the timely completion of distribution pipelines projects, is now re-strategised through clubbing smaller schemes and awarding fewer contracts to bigger and serious-minded contractors for timely completion of allocated work,” managing director SSGC Imran Maniar told reporters during a briefing session at his office.
He pointed out that a special section under SGM (SBU-LS) has been established to address the chronic issue of obtaining road-cutting permissions from competent authorities. Acquisition of permissions has remained the biggest impediment to completing the distribution pipeline projects in the past. This initiative has resulted in acquisition of a large number of critical and long-pending NOCs from competent authorities, he added.
He said rehabilitation of distribution network is completely re-strategised which has enhanced the rehabilitation capacity from 25-km to 125-km each month. “As result of this massive improvement and enhanced focus, 735-km rehabilitation works have been completed in FY 2022-23 which is a record achievement,” he said adding that achievement against the yearly rehabilitation targets remained 96percent (company-wide) with Karachi (97 percent), Interior Sindh (94 percent) and Balochistan (100 percent).
He pointed out that a mid-term plan is chalked out, aiming to rehabilitate of around 4,500-km distribution network in next 3 years.
According to him, execution phase started for around 800kms network rehabilitation schemes in respect of DHA phase I, II, V, VI and VII. Rehabilitation works completed for Phase I and II. Rehabilitation of Phase VI has been completed by (service installation in progress), whereas works for Phase V and VII are expected to be completed by third quarter of FY 2023-24.
For capacity building and performing UFG-targeted rehabilitation of distribution pipelines, a contract for more than 500km of distribution (DHA Phase VI and VII) pipelines has been awarded to a PEC C-2 category level contractor whereas, remaining rehabilitation of Phase-V will be completed within the stipulated timeframe through in-house resources, he informed.
To ensure quality of such large distribution pipeline project, third party quality inspection firm has been engaged under the supervision of HSE&QA department to have impartial view on quality of the laid pipelines, he said. In order to achieve a substantial improvement in high UFG cities of interior Sindh, major rehabilitation schemes of around 300-kms are planned in three (03) cities i.e., Kandhkot 113-km, Shahdadkot 92-km and Sakrand 75-km, he added.
He said the capacity to execute rehabilitation projects has been increased to 1,500km per annum which will enable the plan to rehabilitate 4,500km network every three years and cover all the chronic areas especially in Karachi.
About the results of these rehabilitation projects, he said10.54 BCF UFG savings has been achieved on Company-Wide basis till December 2023,(as compared to preceding year) with biggest savings of 5.8 BCF contributed by Karachi, whereas, interior Sindh has achieved 2.1 BCF UFG savings, leading to combined cumulative UFG percentage of Sindh retaining within single digit i.e. 7.0 percent.
Moreover, through the implementation of an aggressive UFG reduction plan aiming at reduction of UFG in Balochistan region by 8 BCF during the current fiscal year; a saving of more than 2.8 BCF savings has already been realized. 90 percent of the total franchise is now under OGRA benchmark, a feat that has not been achieved in 20 years. With current efforts in Balochistan it is expected that the company UFG will be in single digit during this year, he said.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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