The shortage of CNG (compressed natural gas) is expected to get worse after the September 30 deadline of the Supreme Court to completely switch all commercial vehicles plying in the capital to the clean fuel.
Even if Indraprastha Gas, the sole supplier of CNG in the capital, is able to meet its target of setting up 80 filling stations, the demand would far exceed the supply.
Senior Delhi government officials admit that there is no way the shortfall would be met and are hoping that the demand side pressure would also be somewhat mitigated as the complete conversion of the fleet of public transport vehicles to CNG would fail to occur.
Although Indraprastha Gas is unwilling to speculate if the apex court would give any further relaxation in the deadline, it said that by clubbing autorickshaws, which run on petrol, with commercial diesel vehicles, has increased the pressure on the CNG supply.
"Autorickshaws, which run on the cleaner unleaded petrol, could have been given some more time to convert. The Delhi government could not provide the correct assessment of the requirement of CNG by the city's public transport system. We now realise that we would not be able to fulfill the total demand of the fuel by the 80 filling stations that are planned," a senior Indraprastha Gas official said.
However, Delhi government officials sought to pass the blame on the Centre saying all figures on the number of commercial vehicles in the city were public and were repeatedly quoted in all the documents filed in the court.
"The ministry of petroleum failed to assess the requirement of CNG, as also other technical issues involved such as suitable adapters for filling gas in autos, which is responsible for the long queues at filling stations," the Delhi government officials said.
"The situation is going to get worse close to the September 30 deadline when there would be a spurt in the number of CNG buses on Delhi roads. With only the nine mother stations, out of the 71 in operation, equipped to fill CNG in buses, we would see long queues of buses too," they said.
