CNG crisis of Mumbai: Attempt of theft led to citywide shortage of the fuel.

Today , Nov 19 : Thane, Mumbai and Navi Mumbai witnessed the major shortage of CNG leading to inconveniences for many auto drivers and people using CNG cars.The crisis began on Sunday evening when third-party damage inside the RCF compound
ruptured GAIL’s main gas-supply pipeline feeding MGL’s City Gate Station (CGS) at Wadala. This break affected the distribution of CNG across Navi Mumbai, Mumbai and Thane region. Around 5,00,000 auto drivers dependent on cng fuel faced consequences of citywide cng shortage. The major reason for this third party damage is claimed to be an attempt to steal fuel from pipelines. The suspect is identified as Vinod Pandit who tried to steal fuel by tampering with the underground fuel pipelines using multiple tools. The first attempt of theft was made on 13th November around 9:30 pm, which was not successful as the intrusion detection system turned on alerting the company officials. Upon
reaching the site there was no particular damage detected. A second attempt to steal fuel was made on the very next day again tampering the underground pipelines, using particular tools required. This time again the intrusion detection system turned on alerting officials, after reaching the site officials claimed to witness a pit dug beneath the pipeline, tools like cutters, bolts, spade, hammer were scattered around. These two attempts of tampering with the pipelines led to the disruption in the flow of CNG. Not only in Mumbai but the crisis took place in Thane and Navi Mumbai too.
By Tuesday evening MGL claimed that the flow of CNG had been restored and supply to industrial and commercial consumers was being restarted gradually.