Shanghai to replace residential rubber gas hoses with metal tubes

Shanghai's housing and building department announced on Tuesday that the city will replace rubber gas lines with metal tubes for free for the first batch of over 500,000 households by the end of September.

The loosened, worn and broken rubber gas hoses that link natural gas tubes to residential stoves are blamed for around 40 percent of the gas leakage instances in Shanghai every year.

Metal hoses can help avoid such mishaps.

All neighborhood residents who are still using rubber gas hoses will have them replaced within the next two years.

According to Hu Guangjie, director of the Shanghai Housing and Construction Management Commission, the government and gas firms would fund the replacement costs.

The first batch of homes in Changning and Putuo districts have launched the replacement effort.

It is one of the commission's two projects launched this year. It also intends to provide free gas alarms to over 100,000 local elderly people who live alone.

The installation is expected to be completed by the end of September. According to Hu, once a gas leak is found, the seniors will hear fast, rapid and loud sirens.