Residents of societies on Sohna Road and South City 2 protested against the sanctioning of a CNG station on a sector road in Sector 49, claiming this would further congest the already busy stretch.
Residents of gated communities on Sohna Road and South City 2 — including Uppal's Southend, Malibu Towne, Nirvana Country, The Palladians, M2K Aura, Vipul Greens and Army Welfare Housing Organisation (AWHO) in Sispal Vihar — protested against the sanctioning of a CNG pump station in Sector 49, just off Sohna Road, on April 12.
Residents alleged that the CNG station had been sanctioned on a 9-m-wide sector road connecting Sohna Road. A large number of residential societies, hospitals, schools and shopping complexes are located on the stretch, and residents are dependent on the road for their daily commute. This road will be further choked once the CNG station comes up, residents claimed.
“Once the CNG station comes up, imagine the long queue of heavy vehicles awaiting refuelling, parked on the same road that residents take to reach their offices and homes,” said Neeraj Yadav, RWA president of South City 2.
Two petrol pumps are already functional close to the residential complexes just off Sohna Road, and residents believe an additional CNG station will only lead to traffic congestion.
“When two Indian Oil petrol pumps are already operational within 100 m on both sides of the road, how did the local administration get the site sanctioned for a CNG station without taking into account public protests against it?” asked Major General (Retd) SK Yadav, RWA president of Sispal Vihar.
The road already has heavy traffic leading to jams throughout the day.
“Despite approaching the authority on a number of occasions, there has been no positive response, and common people are being subjected to undue harassment and inconvenience by an insensitive administration. Earlier, the authorities said they had not given an NOC, but now they have obtained that too,” said Pratibha Sharma of South City 2.
“We are not against the CNG station per se. But we are definitely against the location of the sanctioned site for this station. We want the local authorities to shift it to a wider road in the vicinity,” said Alka Dalal, former RWA president of Malibu Towne.
However, MS Khatkar, director, Haryana City Gas, said, “The residents assume traffic congestion will be the same as at other locations with CNG stations — but the situation is not same. Those locations are near business establishments, but here the volume of vehicles will not be much.”
