City sees rise in CNG vehicles

Worried over frequent rise in the prices of petrol and diesel, car buyers in the diamond city seem to have fallen in love with compressed natural gas (CNG) that offers higher fuel efficiency and lower running cost.
The six-month period from January to June 2011 has witnessed a phenomenal increase in the number of CNG vehicles in the diamond city. About 12,000 CNG-run cars have been added in the last six months taking their number in the city to 76,000.
According to CNG retrofitters, there was a steep increase in the demand for CNG conversion in the last three months with the Central government increasing the prices of petrol and diesel. On an average, about 3,000 petrol cars are being converted into CNG per month against the average of 1,500 cars per month before March 2011.
This has led to the increase in the sale of CNG by 20 per cent in the last six months in the city. This is putting pressure on city gas distributors (CGD) to improve the CNG filling station infrastructure in and around the city.
Official sources said the daily consumption of CNG in the city was about 1.90 lakh kilogram last year, which has increased to 2.15 lakh kilogram in the past six month due to the increase in the vehicle running on CNG.
Ghanshyam Patel, owner of Khodiyar Motors, a leading CNG retrofitter, said, "There is a sharp increase in the number of CNG vehicles in the city. The reason is that people want higher fuel efficiency as prices of petrol and diesel are increasing. Also, the price of CNG in Surat is less compared to other regions like Ahmedabad and Vadodara."
In-charge regional transport officer (RTO), Yusuf Bandy, said, "The number of CNG-run vehicles is increasing and there is an urgent need to increase more and more CNG stations in the city. We also urge the CNG car users to only use RTO approved CNG technology in order to prevent accidents."
"We have been selling on an average 45 CNG cars per month and the recent demand after the hike in the petrol and diesel prices has increased the waiting period for CNG models as well," said Tejas Patel, manager of Kataria automobiles, a well-known dealer of Maruti which launched five petrol cars - Sx4, Alto, WagonR, Estilo and Eeco with CNG integrated injectors in November last year.