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Striking fuel crisis in Chennai

Special Correspondent

— Photo: K.Pichumani

WAITING FOR STOCKS: A petrol bunk on New Military Road in Avadi that went without products on Wednesday.

CHENNAI: The city and its suburbs reeled under a fuel crisis on Wednesday, as the nationwide strike called by Central trade unions affected operations at the Korukkupet terminal of Indian Oil Corporation.

Petrol and diesel supplies to the retail outlets were hit, a spokesperson of the IOC said.

The terminal, which despatches around 400 loads on an average every day, functioned overtime on Tuesday night but it was not enough to avoid dryouts.

The impact was cascading, according to officials of the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd, as customers of IOC outlets turned to the facilities of the other two companies. Officials of all three companies admitted that some outlets in the city and suburbs went without products.

At most outlets that were dispensing the fuels, long queues of vehicles and people with jerry cans and containers of different capacity were witnessed.

In some cases such as at the HPCL outlet on Velachery Bypass Road the line up of vehicles affected the flow of traffic in the area during rush hour.

There were also outlets such as the one on Durgabhai Deshmukh Road, which remained shut for sometime.

The strike added to the woes of the motorists, especially those on the outskirts, who since Saturday have been experiencing problems with regard to the availability of the fuels, particularly diesel.

Oil company officials have been maintaining that adequate products are being pumped into the retail outlets, but the demand from the non-transport sector, particularly for power generator sets, was surging.

Truck and lorry operators in southern States have decided to go on strike on September 1 if their demands for adequate supply of diesel are not met.

R. Sugumar, spokesman, All India Motor Transport Congress, Tamil Nadu, told presspersons that many petrol bunks in the States were reporting shortage of diesel. Some were also refusing to supply diesel during night, when most trucks and lorries ply.

This has affected the transport sector adversely, he said.

Alleging that an artificial demand was being created, he urged the government to take immediate action against such practices by suppliers.

R. Panneeselvam, General Secretary, Tamil Nadu Sand Lorry Owner’s Federation, underscored the need to make available fuel to meet the requirements of the transport sector.

Other demands of the heavy vehicle operators include curbing overloading in trucks and lorries by goods manufacturers and lifting the restriction on speed limits in highways.

Mr. Sugumar said that goods manufacturers had not raised the rent for truck and lorry operators and forced them to carry extra load.

“We had placed these demands before the Centre during our July 4 bandh, and the government had promised to meet them then, but these have not been kept,” he said.

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