KATHMANDU, NOV 19 - Despite the Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) assuring a regular supply of petrol from Tuesday, vehicle owners in the Capital are still reeling under a shortage of the fuel. “Fourteen thousand litres of petrol got finished in just four hours. Despite that, many vehicles returned with empty tanks,” said Ram Bhakta Shrestha, a staff at Mali Oil Stores in Kalimati.

According to Shrestha, petrol pumps have not been able to fulfill the demand.

Digambar Jha, managing director of NOC, stressed that petrol is available in sufficient quantities. The average consumption of the valley is 275 kilolitres per day. But, NOC has been providing 300 kilolitres per day from Tuesday, according to Jha, and that the long queues may be the leftover impact of the five-day-long shortage. “It could be a psychological fear in the minds of the consumers that the scarcity situation will continue,” he said. Jha said that NOC has supplied the fuel to only about 20 to 25 pumps which might have created the problem in supply.

 “I have learned a lesson from it. So, from Thursday, petrol will be supplied from Thankot to all 80 pumps inside the Valley. But, we will ration the amount of petrol to each petrol pump,” he said.

The week-long fire at a fuel depot in Jaipur, India, on Oct. 29 had led to a review of safety norms at the Indian Oil Corporation depot in Raxaul, which had reduced the number of trucks that can be loaded at a time. The updating of the safety norms had also created a permanent jam at the Birgunj-Raxaul border, and trucks had not been able to enter Nepal. The strike by civil servants in Birgunj had also created obstruction in the mobility of trucks.

Posted on: 2009-11-19 10:17

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