The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Several vehicles left starving for fuel as bunks report shortage

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Monday, Jun 30, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Several vehicles left starving for fuel as bunks report shortage

Staff Reporter

Lorry owners’ outfit to join strike from the night of July 1

— Photo: K. Pichumani

DRY DAY: A ’No stock’ board being displayed at a petrol bunk on Venkatnarayana Road in T. Nagar.

CHENNAI: Many petrol bunks in the city turned away customers on Sunday, saying they had no petrol or diesel stocks. By evening, many outlets put up notices announcing ‘no stock’ or had turned off their lights. Several motorists, who needed fuel urgently, went from outlet to outlet only to be turned away.

An employee of a bunk on Anna Salai said diesel stock that they received on Saturday was over by Sunday evening. And since it was difficult to turn away people, they had turned their lights off. “People whose vehicle tanks were nearly empty plead with us for a few litres but we are unable to help them,” a worker said.

A taxi driver said he went to 10 petrol bunks but had to return disappointed. A resident of Kilpauk, N. Meenakumari, who has a diesel car, said she was unable to find diesel in several outlets in her area.

M. Kannan, president of Tamil Nadu Petroleum Dealers Association, said that many outlets in the city and its suburbs had received only 50 per cent of the normal requirement on Saturday.

“Oil companies have not said why the supply was reduced. It is like an undeclared ration,” he said.

Confirming that several outlets in the city went without regular diesel as well branded diesel, a senior official of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited said the arrival of a few import parcels of the fuel had been delayed. In the meantime, the oil marketing companies are managing with the available stock. Admitting that it was a hand-to-mouth situation, he said that one reason for the reported dry-outs on Sunday was no supply from the terminals.

The terminals were closed on Sunday and the situation was expected to ease by Monday noon.

Repeat of last week

A similar shortage hit many of the outlets in the city and its suburbs last weekend leading to several of the outlets, including many in the neighbouring Thiruvallur district, going dry on Monday morning.

Following media reports then, the oil companies had denied that there was any shortfall in fuel supply and that they were not forcing the dealers to sell only branded fuels.

Strike planned

The Chennai, Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur District River Sand Lorry and Tipper Lorry Owners Federation has appealed to Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi to ensure that adequate diesel and petrol is available for all.

The federation will join in the lorry strike planned at the national level from the night of July 1, a release here said.

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