People in Karachi are forced to buy expensive liquefied petroleum gas amid a severe crisis during cold chilling winter, media reports said on Monday.

While the gas loadshedding is scheduled from 9:30pm to 6am and 2:30pm to 5pm, most parts of the city either remain without gas most of the day or receive gas with a very low pressure, reported Dawn News.

Local residents complained that they face this problem every year when winter season sets in Karachi, one of the major Pakistani cities.

Sources in the gas utility told Dawn that the dilapidated gas distribution infrastructure across the city was also one of the major reasons behind the crisis and the low pressure was mainly caused by leakages in the distribution network.

They said that the SSGC was currently engaged in rehabilitation of its aging gas distribution infrastructure across the city to improve the supply to domestic consumers.

The sources added that major rehabilitation work on the 2,500km distribution network was underway in some thickly populated areas, including North Nazimabad, North Karachi and Lyari.

They told the Pakistani newspaper that the gas supply to several areas was affected due to replacement of old distribution pipelines to resolve the low pressure problems.

The sources said that gas shortage complaints at the 1199 from different parts of the city had swelled since the advent of winters.