Gracy Tripathy& Vikramaditya
Port Blair, Dec 15: Officials of Indian Oil Cooperation Today said that the shortage of fuel, in North and Middle Andaman, especially the shortage of diesel, is because the retail outlets are supplying Diesel in bulk quantity to contractors associated with major construction projects in North and Middle Andaman.
Talking to Andaman Sheekha the Chief Terminal Manager of IOCL today said that retail outlets are supposed to supply fuel to public, two-wheelers, three wheelers and four wheelers etc. But it is observed that they are supplying diesel in bulk quantity to major private contractors, which is the reason, others are not getting diesel in sufficient quantity.
“As per rule big companies must take fuel directly from IOCL as they have separate rates and the rates for general public are different,” he added.
He added that weekly two or three oil tankers containing diesel was earlier enough for North and Middle Andaman but now weekly five to six oil tankers are also not sufficient.
He said that daily atleast six to eight oil tankers are being sent to North and Middle Andaman by IOCL, for three retail outlets of North and Middle Andaman and also Electricity Department.
According to him at present the ratio of sending oil tankers for petrol and diesel to North and Middle Andaman is 1:4, which means if one oil tanker of petrol is sent to North and Middle four oil tankers of diesel are also needed for the region. “There is a high demand for diesel these days,” he added.
Earlier, several local contractors and others had alleged that they are not getting sufficient quantity of diesel from Rangat Retail Outlet.
The Retail Outlet owner of Rangat has however alleged that there is a huge time loss in getting permissions from Port Blair for oil tankers and hence fuel is reaching late in Rangat.
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