Mumbai: Mumbai faced severe transport disruption on Monday morning as a major breakdown in gas supply left numerous compressed natural gas (CNG) pumps shut or partially operational across the metropolitan region. The sudden outage triggered long queues of public transport vehicles and caused significant delays for lakhs of daily commuters.
According to drivers, CNG supply began dwindling late Sunday night, forcing many auto-rickshaws, taxis and app-based cabs to line up for hours at the few pumps that were still functioning. By early morning, visuals flooded social media, showing kilometre-long queues of vehicles near fuel stations, spilling onto main roads and slowing down peak-hour traffic in several areas.
The crisis originated after third-party pipeline damage inside the Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers (RCF) plant reportedly impacted the main GAIL gas pipeline, which supplies gas to Mahanagar Gas Limited (MGL). As a result, gas flow to MGL’s City Gate Station in Wadala dropped sharply, disrupting supply to several pumps across Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai.
Public transport corps relying almost entirely on CNG were hit the hardest. Multiple pumps either shut down operations completely or operated at drastically reduced speed, causing thousands of drivers to wait through the night in fear of losing an entire day’s earnings.
Commuters across Byculla, Kurla, Sion, Chembur, Borivali, Andheri, Mulund and Vashi reported a shortage of autos and taxis, especially during the morning rush hour.
