Government exploring alternatives to ease fuel supply

Kathmandu March 3- Almost three weeks after Nepal Oil Corporation reopened refilling facility for private vehicles, the serpentine queues of four- and two-wheelers waiting to get fuel in front of service stations do not seem to be getting any shorter. Though NOC has ramped up the supply, fuel stations say it is not enough to normalise the situation.

“The supply situation can be normalised in the Kathmandu Valley only if NOC dispatches 700,000 litres of petrol and 800,000 litres of diesel every day for a week,” claimed Lilendra Prasad Pradhan, president of Nepal Petroleum Dealers’ National Association.

NOC, on the other hand, says it is supplying optimum quantity of fuel and that the short-supply is due to Indian Oil Corporation supplying only 70 per cent of fuel, including liquefied petroleum gas, when compared to the supply during normal times. IOC is the sole supplier of NOC.