In light of the earlier post on CNG buses in Thane, a suburb of Mubai (Bombay), this short piece on a neighborhood's objection to the building of a new CNG station in the area is interesting.

Mid-Day reports that some 1,200 residents are protesting the building of a  CNG station on an eight-acre plot that is being developed as a recreation center.

“There are six schools around TPS Road 3 so having a pump here will be quite hazardous for the 40,000 students of the schools,” says a resident of Saket Building, who did not wish to be named.

Attendants at the only CNG pump in Borivli located opposite Ganjawala Apartments on Station Road say that the waiting time currently at their gas station is approximately one to eight hours.

However, TPS 3 residents are not convinced by this argument. “We understand that the suburb needs another station, but it should not come up at this location,” says Vijay Sutrale from Kent Gardens.

Generally every new energy project is going to have some form of local objection (Not In My Back Yard—NIMBY), some warranted, some not. The controversy over the CNG station highlights the difficulties that will emerge as cities begin trying to support new refueling infrastructures, if those infrastructures are not integrated into the existing ones (the ones over which the battles have already been fought).

Just wait until the plans for hydrogen stations start emerging.

This will be a global issue, as the residents of this Indian suburb are demonstrating, and it will require time, patience, education and perhaps some negotiation to resolve. Better start now.