The crisis of petroleum products and cooking gas has deepened in the Kathmandu Valley on Friday continuously as Nepal Oil Corporation, the government owned single distributor of petroleum products, has cut supply citing rapid fall of fuel stock at Thankot.
On Wednesday, the corporation distributed 96,000 liters of petrol, which was less by more than one third of the normal regular demand. It was mostly distributed through institutional dealers run by public agencies.
The recent fuel scarcity has been caused primarily due to the disturbances at the Birgunj-Raxaul area once again, throwing the lives of average citizens out of gear. A fuel crisis inevitably also has a spiralling effect on the prices of essential goods.
"While normal supply has been affected for the past three weeks due to Terai unrest, fresh disturbances at Birgunj-Raxaul border have caused the recent scarcity as oil tankers are unable to cross the border or reach their destination," pointed out NOC spokesperson Ichcha Bikram Thapa on Thursday.
As a result, long queues of vehicle were visible at institutional petrol pumps, including those run by the army, armed-police force, police and Sajha cooperative.
Taxi drivers queuing for petrol in Bhadrakali said they have been queuing since Tuesday midnight and were expecting to receive supplies by 1:00 pm Wednesday.
NOC official informed about 66 tankers had been loaded Thursday morning and likely to leave at various destinations like Birgunj, Kathmandu, Pokhara.
"We are seeking the help of security forces as well as the transport authority for the safe passage of tankers," he added. The NOC official held out some more hope for people as he claimed some amount of fuel was also coming from the Bhairahawa-UP border.
"But we don't expect the fuel crisis to be resolved fully any time soon unless the Birgunj disturbances come to an end completely," maintained Thapa.
This is because substantial quantities of petrol is imported via the Birgunj entry point.
Meanwhile, Kathmandu residents continued to try their luck at various petrol pumps in the city waiting for anywhere between three to ten hours in queues. While the NOC official claimed they were supplying fuel to nine institutional petrol pumps apart from six private ones, sources maintained there were only two or three petrol pumps out of the total 120 stations in the city which were selling fuel at any given point of time.
The NOC official ruled out fears and reports in certain sections of the media that fuel stocks would last only for another two to three days.
"Controlling supply, as we are doing now, will help the stocks to last for another 10 to 12 days," he said.
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