Petrol shortage in Chennai to end today: Jaya

After chairing a high-level meeting, Jayalalithaa said three ships carrying 67,000 kilo litres of diesel and petrol from Kochi arrived at Chennai port this afternoon.

Efforts were being made to distribute this stock to the bunks of Bharat Petroleum, Indian Oil Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation, she said in a statement.

In addition, urgent steps were being taken to bring 2,000 kilo litres of diesel from Bangalore by road. IOC and HPCL were also taking steps to distribute more petrol and diesel to city and suburban areas, Jayalalithaa said.

"Chennai requires about 2,100 kl petrol and 2,500 kl diesel daily. Since steps have been taken for immediate distribution of the 67,000 kl petrol and diesel to the bunks, I am happy to announce the shortage will come to an end from today," the Chief Minister said.

She said the oil marketing companies had attributed the crisis to non-functioning of the Mangalore Refineries in the last ten days, non-arrival of diesel supplies to Bharat Petroleum and increased demand.

The situation caused by the short supply of petrol and diesel in the past few days worsened since yesterday with most of the bunks across the city and suburban areas going dry.

Serpentine queues and frayed tempers were witnessed at the bunks which had some stock as desperate motorists sought the government's intervention to solve the problem.