Fuel stations go dry as oil strike enters Day 2

With the meeting in New Delhi yielding no results,petrol pump owners fear that the situation will worsen once their buffer stocks are exhausted.

The city might come to a grinding halt as vehicles will not be able to refill if the strike continues.

“Some of us had to shut our pumps from today morning as our stocks got depleted. The last supply of fuel came on Wednesday at 6 am,on which we are surviving,” said Tushar Kanti Sen,president of West Bengal Petroleum Dealers Association.

According to Sen,the strike is going have an adverse affect on daily commuters as well as emergency services like fire service and ambulance. Sen claims to have informed Chief Secretary Asok Mohan Chakrabarti about the condition,which will turn worse if the government does not take immediate steps. “The chief secretary has assured me that he will speak to the home secretary and the chief minister so that the situation is tackled properly,” said Sen.

“We are out of diesel while our petrol stock will only last till tomorrow after which the petrol pump will go completely dry,” said Sailender Singh,a worker at K C Daw Pvt Ltd petrol pump at Babughat.

More than 2,000 oil tankers were seen waiting outside filling centres of various oil companies at Mourigram,Haldia,Rajmath in Durgapur,Siliguri and Malda.

“The situation is getting worse. Most of the fuel stock is getting exhausted as vehicles owners have hit the panic button. Our pump will go dry by tomorrow as there are no fresh stocks,” said a pump worker at Rashbehari Avenue.

Even the vehicle owners are at their wits end. “I have been to fuel stations in the Hastings and Babughat areas for diesel but there was no stock. My tank will last another 40 to 50 kms only,” said Naresh K Gupta,a taxi driver of Kidderpore.

Flights delayed,buffer stock till today
The strike called by officers of the government-run oil companies has hit the daily flight operations of domestic and international flights hard on Thursday at Kolkata airport.

According to airport officials,the fuel stored at the airport is enough to operate till Friday. The delay in flight operations started in early hours as re-fuelling was taking time due to the absence of executive-rank officials of oil companies at the airport. Most of the incoming flights from Mumbai and Delhi were also delayed. Flights were affected till 1 pm after which services were back to normal after officers were released from the strike.

Air India and foreign airlines suffered more compared to the private airlines as they get their supplies from the Indian Oil Corporation and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited,whose officers are on strike. Private airlines were less affected as they take fuel from the Hindustan Petroleum.

Air India flights to Port Blair,Agartala,Guwahati and Hyderabad were delayed by 20 minutes to half-an-hour. Only the flight to Aizawl left on time,said airport authorities. Several flights of foreign airlines were also affected and left about 15 to 20 minutes behind schedule.