Midnight rush makes petrol pumps run dry

Most petrol filling stations in the city ran dry on Friday morning,the stocks getting depleted owing to the huge rush of people to beat the Thursday midnight deadline for the petrol hike announced earlier.

Most petrol filling stations in the city ran dry on Friday morning,the stocks getting depleted owing to the huge rush of people to beat the Thursday midnight deadline for the petrol hike announced earlier. Many pumps in the city showed no stock boards in the morning. Later in the day they were back in action after they got a refill.

Pune Petrol Dealers Association spokesperson Ali Daruwalla said that every day,Pune district requires 13.5 lakh litres of petrol for the 350 petrol pumps. There are 120 pumps in Pune city,70 in Pimpri-Chinchwad and 160 in the rural parts of the district. After the petrol price hike was announced,there was a huge rush at all petrol pumps. We kept calling the oil company at Loni Kalbhor terminal because we fell short of demand. They refused to take our calls. Even as people blame us,we want to clarify that we could not access extra stock due to the sudden pressure, said Daruwalla.

The dealers said when company officials were contacted,they maintained that they continued their services but gave only the required demand. The company officials,however,said,We have all the drafts of the demand which we have fulfilled. Daruwalla said almost 20 pumps in the city complained of no stock and had to shut down due to immense pressure on Thursday night.

Citizens had rushed to petrol pumps to fill their fuel tanks. With the price hike I thought it is better to get the fuel tank filled earlier, said Somesh Naik,a resident of Bibwewadi.

For the second day,there were protests by various citizens groups and political parties against the hike. Noisy demonstrations were held by political activists joined by angry citizens.

BJP city chief Vikas Matkari led a morcha at Alka talkies chowk. We gathered at Alka chowk to protest against the sudden fuel hike which is definitely putting pressure on the common man, said Matkari.

Click here to join Express Pune WhatsApp channel and get a curated list of our stories