Sunday, March 22, 2009

Petrol crisis jolts public confidence

It seems that the valley denizens have stopped believing in the government's promises of smooth supply of petroleum products. Regular bandhs in the Tarai and blockade of the highways connecting to the capital -- the only supply route -- has taught them a new lesson: Hoarding of essential goods and petroleum products according to necessity.
Though Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has been selling adequate quantity of petrol, most of the petrol pumps in the Valley were crowded today especially by motorcyclists. At some of the pumps, queues were more than a half-kilometre.
"NOC here sold 3,00,000 litres of petrol on Friday to the petrol pumps and 1,00,000 litres was sold by the Amlekhgunj NOC depot that reached Kathmandu yesterday," informed NOC spokesperson Mukund Dhungel. NOC is the nation's sole petroleum products' distributor cum supplier.
Dhungel was of the view that there was no cause for lower supply. "The Thankot depot sold 22 tankerfuls of petrol today," he said adding that the around 1,00,000 litres of petrol sold today by the Amlekhgunj depot would reach the Valley by tomorrow. "Not only that, we have made arrangements to get supply from Bhairahawa also," he added.

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