By Abdul Ghani

The Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) has laid out a four-year roadmap to supply gas to 261 villages and towns located within a 5-kilometre radius of gas-fields across Sindh.

According to a document available with Wealth Pakistan, the roadmap, spanning the 5th to 8th year/phase of the initiative, is structured around fiscal years 2025-26 through 2028-29, with each phase anchored to specific gas fields already in production.

Year 5 (FY 2025-26) kicks off with the Kousar, Tangri and Gambat South fields, covering Matiari, Tando Mohammed Khan and Sanghar districts. This phase alone targets 88 villages, a 179.4 km pipeline network, and 2,303 prospective customers carrying a total project cost of Rs1,449.884 million.

The company has already received Rs1,325.522 million against this phase, with detailed engineering surveys completed and schemes now in preparation for execution.

Year 6 (FY 2026-27) focuses on the Bobi and Hassan fields in Sanghar and Shikarpur districts. This phase targets 46 villages, a 178.52 km network, and 2,710 prospective customers, carrying a total project cost of Rs1,495.075 million.

Year 7 (FY 2027-28) is the most geographically dense phase, spanning four fields — Naimat Basal, Jakhoro, Wariyah and Bukhari — across Sanghar and Tando Mohammed Khan. This stage will connect 67 villages via a 171.97 km pipeline network serving 2,281 customers, at a projected cost of Rs1,407.608 million.

Year 8 (FY 2028-29) rounds out the plan with Sanghar East (Naimat ul Basal), Sujawal and Koonj fields across Sanghar, Sujawal and Shikarpur. Costing Rs1,373.395 million, this phase will connect the gas fields with 60 villages through a 155.02 km network, serving 1,620 customers.

The four phases will feed gas to a total of 261 villages/towns through a new pipeline infrastructure of 684.91 kilometres serving 8,914 prospective customers. The total project cost is Rs5,725.962 million, split between the company’s own share of Rs481.356 million and the government’s share of Rs5,244.606 million under the "Over & Above Cost Criteria".

The overwhelming majority of the financial burden, roughly 92%, falls on the government side rather than SSGC's own balance sheet.

If executed on schedule, by FY2028-29, the 5KM radius gasification drive will have transformed nearly 9,000 households and businesses across six districts — Matiari, Tando Mohammed Khan, Sanghar, Shikarpur and Sujawal — from gas-field neighbours into gas-network customers, closing a long-standing equity gap between resource-producing communities and the benefits of that production.

Credit: INP-WealthPk