NOC officials said they could not distribute enough fuel because its import has gone down due to renovation works at Raxaul depot of the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC). [break]
“Renovation works going on at Raxaul depot has affected its normal operations since some time. Hence, we are facing difficulty in getting enough fuel and managing supply,” said Mukunda Dhungel, NOC Spokesperson. Raxaul depot is the largest oil import point for Nepal.
Referring to the problem, NOC has cut the supply in the market in line with the volume of import. As a result, queues of vehicles appeared in the refilling stations.
Officials of Nepal Petroleum Dealers Association (NPDA) said supply of petrol dwindled on the day, but situation of diesel availability remained much worse. They said more than fifty percent of the refilling stations in the Capital were presently operating with ´no diesel´ signs as the corporation has grossly failed to issue enough diesel in the market since last few weeks.
As disturbance at Raxaul depot is expected to prevent Nepal from getting normal supply for some time, NOC officials said they have already instructed the corporation depot at Bhairahawa to dispatch additional fuel to Kathmandu.
“Under this initiative, we received 60 KL of diesel from Bhairahawa and instantly dispatched it to the market to prevent scarcity,” said Dhungel.
The corporation has also started exercises to bring in more fuel from Baitalpur and Barauni.
Chief of NOC Thankot Depot Birendra Goit said that the corporation was facing more problems in managing diesel than petrol because demand for diesel had soared sharply with the increase in load shedding hours.
“Our stock of diesel at Thakot is fast depleting. Hence, we have asked Amlekhgunj and Bhairahawa depot to dispatch more tankers of diesel to Kathmandu,” said Goit.
On Wednesday, NOC distributed 460 kiloliters of diesel in Kathmandu, but officials said the volume supplied proved too low to bring respite to consumers. According to NOC, the demand for diesel has presently jumped to 550 KL a day.
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