PONDA: The residents of Ponda faced gas shortage on Christmas Eve as digging by Goa Electricity Department (GED) contractor for laying underground power cable damaged 130 mm piped main natural gas line located at underground at Tisk, Ponda. Around 500 household and five commercial establishment were affected.
The incident occurred at around 10 am and the gas supply was restored only after five hours at 3.30 pm. The areas where gas supply was halted were Sub District Hospital, Upper and Lower Bazaar, Yashwant Nagar, Sadar, Santa Cruz. Shantinagar. Kurtarkar Nagari and some parts of Durgabhat.
The locals blamed the GED contractor for negligent work as this is the fourth such incident since the past one-and-half months. Earlier he had damaged the gas pipeline at Curti. A consumer at Khadpaband, Ponda said with the shortage of gas he was forced to immediately purchase an induction stove to cook food.
The sources in Goa Natural Gas Private Limited said the officials of Electricity Department need to guide their labourers while digging since the underground natural gas pipeline has been laid in 2017 and many consumers are using piped natural gas.
A Ponda Councillor said the GED contractor should use tracing machines to know the locations of underground water pipes and gas lines so that they are not damaged.
The Goa Natural Gas Private Limited, a joint venture of Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL) and Bharat Petroleum Ltd, had launched gas distribution project for Ponda town in 2017. So far 4,000 household are connected, while around 2,000 households are actually using piped gas.
