LAHORE, April 9: The Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) failed on Wednesday to repair two ruptured gas lines near Ahmadpur Lambha and restore supplies to the Punjab and the NWFP as people of the area took to street demanding compensation for loss to their property and livestock.

The company, on its part, demanded of the government to take charge of the security of gas installations till it is able to sort out crisis with local tribes politically.

According to the company sources, the original repair schedule was hampered by the people’s protests and it has announced an initial package of Rs1 million for the affectees. Now they expect repair work to be completed by midnight Wednesday and another six hours to pack the system, and hope to restore full supplies by Thursday morning.

On Wednesday, the SNGPL system had only 400 million cubic feet of supplies against its peak demand of 1,100 million cubic feet. It had to place a further cut of 200 million cubic feet on general industry to meet the domestic and commercial demands. Both these consumers also suffered badly as pressure fluctuated widely during the day. There were consistent complaints of low pressure and occasional dropping to almost nil supplies from different parts of the province, specially Lahore city.

The departure of investigation team formed by the government to ascertain the cause of the rupture was also delayed by a day and now it would leave for the site on Thursday, and file preliminary report on Friday. “Our first priority is to repair the lines and restore supplies and currently all our attention is focused on it. Inquiry report, though important, can still wait for a day or two but repair schedule cannot. In addition to people’s protest, underground water also sprang up and hindered the repair works on Wednesday.”

The company sources also deflected the blame on the government for repeated failures to take necessary action to save national assets like the gas line. It has been fourth incident during the last four years, but all this has failed to move the authorities concerned for taking necessary steps. The government’s failure triggers a sense of helplessness among the company managers, they say.

The company, they say, is left with no option but to demand extra security for its pipelines. Additional security has become almost inevitable, thought it is a very costly proposition — the Rangers had already asked for Rs4 million per month for monitoring only 18 kilometres of gas line running through the Bugti-Mazari battle field.

Now the saboteurs have struck some 45 kilometres downstream their previous targets. They can easily shift their target further downstream.

The total length of the system is 5,400 kilometres and one can imagine the kind of money required to secure the system. It leaves the SNGPL only with two options — to press the government for resolving the tribal conflict at political level or take charge of the gas line security.