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By:

Quaid Najmi

4 January 2025 at 3:26:24 pm

Gas crunch reaches Mumbai’s high-rise

Mahanagar Gas cuts PNG supply by 50 pc; biz hit Mumbai : Delivering another shock, the Mahanagar Gas Ltd. on Saturday mandated all commercial users to draw only 50 pc of their piped natural gas (PNG) supply with a warning of steep fines and abrupt cut in connection for violators, sending shockwaves in the industry.   This comes barely 48 hours after its first missive (March 12) imposing a 20 per cent  cut in PNG offtake by commercial users, which hit the bakery industry hard, amid...

Gas crunch reaches Mumbai’s high-rise

Mahanagar Gas cuts PNG supply by 50 pc; biz hit Mumbai : Delivering another shock, the Mahanagar Gas Ltd. on Saturday mandated all commercial users to draw only 50 pc of their piped natural gas (PNG) supply with a warning of steep fines and abrupt cut in connection for violators, sending shockwaves in the industry.   This comes barely 48 hours after its first missive (March 12) imposing a 20 per cent  cut in PNG offtake by commercial users, which hit the bakery industry hard, amid  speculation that lakhs of domestic PNG users may be affected next.   The MGL’s directives follow a central order (March 9), calling upon all commercial users to restrict their PNG consumption to only 50 pc of their average usage over the past six months.   The revised rules within 48 hours sent fresh shockwaves among the already panicked commercial PNG users, triggering apprehensions that even domestic consumers may feel the heat with likely ‘rationing’ of their convenient piped fuel connections.   “The gas curtailment is around 50 pc for industrial customers and 20 pc for commercial customers to maintain continuous gas supply to our CNG stations and domestic PNG customers,” a company spokesperson told  The Perfect Voice , justifying its ‘force majeure’ intimations.   Price Revision In its first order, the MGL had indicated a revision in PNG prices due to “gas pooling” arrangements, with the final rates to be announced after consultations with suppliers and the government.   Today, it willy-nilly unveiled the potential harsh hike in the rates of PNG: “We have been informed that any gas drawal by MGL exceeding permissible levels will attract a gas price of Rs 138/Standard Cubic Metre plus VAT.”   Accordingly, all commercial users have been warned that from Friday (March 13), if they cross the threshold limits (50 pc), they will be charged Rs 138/SCM  (Rs. 4091.21/MMBTU), and further usage above the permissible limits would lead to abrupt disconnection of supplies.   Piped Gas Presently, the MGL has over 30-lakh households using PNG in Mumbai and Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), besides 5,200-plus commercial-industrial clients spread in multiple sectors, wholly dependent on piped gas connections.   Additionally, it runs 471-plus CNG stations and supplies it to more than 12-lakh vehicles including public and private transport, with plans to cover large urbanized pockets of Raigad district by 2029   Some of its bulk users include: Godrej Industries Ltd., Larsen & Toubro, Hindalco, several five-star hotels, IT companies, medicare like Asian Heart Institute or Lilavati Hospital, pharmaceutical industry, food and beverages, etc.   Home-makers howl An online achievement school ‘Multiversity of Success’ Founder Dr. Rekhaa Kale (Sion) said if the PNG cuts reach homes, it will disrupt the lives of millions of Mumbaikars. “Now, I regret giving up my LPG cylinders 10 years ago for the PM-Urja scheme, it could have been a life-saver today,” grumbled Dr. Kale.   A private nurse Kirron V. (Dahisar) rued that the real impact of gas shortage will be visible in Mumbai if domestic PNG supplies are also hit. “The so-called elite living in airconditioned high-rises sniggered and ‘looked down’ upon those sweating it out in snaky queues for a LPG cylinder,” she said sarcastically.   As the Gulf War entered the 15 th  day today, the FHRAWI-AHAR Vice-President Pradeep Shetty and other major organisations have repeatedly slammed the government for the acute short supply of LPG leading to chaos all over.

A Valuable Resource

Updated: Feb 10, 2025

biodegradable

Dear Readers, hopefully you have now prepared yourself to segregate your household waste into ‘wet’ or ‘biodegradable’ and ‘dry’ or ‘non-biodegradable’ waste categories. Further, you have now decided to start composting. You would have got some guidelines from my previous articles in this series. But one always needs actual hands-on training or guidance from the experts. (Eventually, over the period, you yourself will be an expert in this field and will start providing guidance to others who need it!).


In my last week’s article, I had briefly introduced one NGO namely Paryavaran Dakshata Mandal (Enviro-Vigil) working in Thane, Dombivali-Kalyan and in the rural area beyond Kalyan. More about Green Living Consultancy provided by this NGO.


Paryavaran Dakshata Mandal provides consultancy and services to the cooperative housing societies, individual residences, educational institutes, hotels and restaurants, corporate offices etc. in the following sectors.

Waste Management and Waste Audit:


Waste or Garbage is not really a ‘waste’ per se but is valuable resource. Proper segregation of the household waste and further utilization of the segregated waste can earn additional revenue to the residential societies. PDM provides guidance in this regard. They have a team of experts who will visit your house or your society, locate a suitable area or space under your guidance for setting up of a bio- or vermi-composting unit for your society.


They will guide and help you in preparing a suitable pit for biocomposting. At the individual level, you can use a plastic bucket for biocomposting at household level as described in my previous article. But at the society or community level, you need a bigger well-constructed pit.


On the basis of number of households in a society and how much biodegradable waste is generated, this team of experts will give you  the specifications about the size of the composting pit, it’s design etc. and will give you an on site demonstration about how to arrange the raw materials in different layers, how to add the biodegradable waste etc.


They also manage this compost pit for certain period and will eventually train the gardener or other responsible person appointed by the society for this task. Paryavaran Dakshata Mandal has set up such biocomposting units at many residential complexes in Thane.


Apart from services in the waste management sector, Paryavaran Dakshata Mandal also provides consultancy services in Energy Management, Waste water recycling, Rainwater Harvesting, Setting up a Butterfly Garden and performing Green Audit etc. 


Apart from these services, Paryavaran Dakshata Mandal is also helping societies and other establishments in assessment and enhancement of biodiversity within their premises. Paryavaran Dakshata Mandal has recently launched an initiative called ‘MY LAKES’, to spread awareness about the lakes in Thane city.


This NGO also organizes ‘Nandanvan’ Beautiful Garden Competition for the gardening enthusiasts in Thane as well as in Kalyan, Dombivali, Titwala etc. In addition, this NGO has a few ongoing projects in which you can participate.  For more information about this and other activities conducted by PDM,  please contact the following numbers: 

Paryavaran Dakshata Mandal Dombivali: 9833046634

Paryavaran Dakshata Mandal Thane:  9372358454


(The author is an environmentalist. Views personal.)

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