E-Paper
Long queues at filling stations; many already out of stock
The effect of the strike by executives of public sector undertaking oil companies was visible at the petrol pumps of Delhi on Thursday.
The effect of the strike by executives of public sector undertaking oil companies was visible at the petrol pumps of Delhi on Thursday. While there were long queues of vehicles at a few petrol pumps in the city, many filling stations had run out of stock by Thursday evening.
“Most petrol pumps have the capacity to keep stock for two days. Since there has been no supply of petrol and diesel in the last two days, the pumps have started running out of stock. There is panic among customers and filling stations are receiving more customers than expected,” said Anil Bijlani, general secretary, Delhi Petrol Traders’ Association.
According to reports, over 40 per cent petrol pumps across the city ran dry by Thursday evening. As the IOC-IBP and Bharat Petroleum filling stations started closing down, the queues got longer at HPCL filling stations. The HPCL officials are not a part of the strike.
“I checked a number of filling stations in Saket, Malviya Nagar, Greater Kailash and Nizamuddin before somebody told me that this pump was still selling fuel,” said Akash Makhija, a resident of Azadpur, who came to a HPCL station in Sunder
Nagar.
The sight of motorists moving from one filling station to another in search of fuel was a common sight in the evening. A rumour that petrol pumps had also joined in the strike added to the confusion.
“A friend told me that petrol pumps would be on strike from Thursday night. I decided to fill the tank,” said Manoj Kaushik, a Lodi Road resident.
The condition in NCR towns was equally bad.
