46,000 NGV vehicles in use in Peninsula

The total number of vehicles using NGV is taken into consideration by the government for the
building of an NGV station in the country.

The Deputy Minister of Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism, Rohani Karim said at the moment, there were only 46,000 motor vehicles using NGV in Peninsular Malaysia.

“There must be vehicles with NGV engines before a station could be built,” she said when replying to question from Tiong King Sing (BN-Bintulu) at Dewan Rakyat, today.

Tiong had enquired on the readiness of petroleum companies to provide NGV stations in the effort to encourage usage of NGV as an alternative fuel.

Rohani said the cost of constructing an NGV station was higher than the cost of building a regular petrol station.

Rohani said due to the high cost of setting up an NGV station, Petronas was currently the only petroleum company in the retailing of NGV in the country.

“The building of an NGV station needs detailed study and it takes a long time to ensure the planning is comprehensive before construction could begin,” she said.

She said other infrastructural requirements for a NGV station included gas piping, location of the main station and petrol station, current market and suitability of the land such as the earth surface.

She also said in the promotion of NGV usage as an alternative fuel, Petronas was committed to have 164 NGV stations in operation nationwide as of May 2011.

“They include Selangor (66), Federal Territory (27), Johor (29), NegeriSembilan (12), Pulau Pinang (4), Melaka (7), Kedah (8), Perak (8) and one each in Terengganu, Perlis and Pahang, ” she said.

In the meantime, she said there were 19 more stations under construction and eight more were under the site location suitability study covering Miri in Sarawak and Kota Kinabalu in Sabah.

Currently, NGV price in the country is the lowest at 68 sen per liter compared to the market price of RM1.48.

– Bernama