India-Pak tensions: Essential services go extra mile to serve border states

From railways and oil marketing companies to retailers, all were putting their best foot forward to ensure availability and constant supply in the wake of tensions between India and Pakistan.

 

Keeping transport lines open

 

National transporter Indian Railways was running special trains to handle increased traffic out of Jammu and Kashmir. Three specials — one train with 12 reserved and unreserved coaches, one 20-coach Vande Bharat train, and 22-coach fully reserved train, and a fully unreserved rake ran on Friday, according Himanshu Upadhyaya, chief public relations officer of the Northern Railway zone.

 

“There is no visible immediate change with regards to travellers towards the border areas. We will be able to assess the impact only after two days. However, the demand for travel bookings on trains and buses from border areas to the rest of India has increased considerably in the last two days,” said Manish Rathi, co-founder and CEO of RailYatri.

 

Truckers witnessed a rise in operations due to uncertainty, a representative of truckers’ association and senior executive of a Delhi-based transport company said. “Some planning has been done keeping blackout protocols in mind. Truck operations are running

 

without any obstacles otherwise, even at the last-mile level in border villages and surrounding areas,” he said.

 

Fuel supply intact

 

Oil marketing companies (OMCs) on Friday said their supply chain operations remained robust. In statements and social media posts, IOCL, BPCL, and HPCL said they had sufficient stocks of petrol, diesel, compressed natural gas, and liquefied petroleum gas.

 

The hurried assurance to consumers came after heightened fuel buying activity in some cities of West and North India on Thursday. “Retail outlets have been swamped in many places affected by cross-border attacks or close to the western border. Higher than average demand has been observed in Jammu, Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Jaipur, and other places,” an OMC official said. “All BPCL fuel stations and LPG distributorships, across its nationwide network are operating smoothly and are fully equipped to meet the energy needs of consumers,” BPCL said. “Help us serve you better by staying calm and avoiding unnecessary rush,” IOCL said on social media platform X.

 

Official figures showed that among the states bordering Pakistan, Rajasthan had over 6,851 petrol pumps while Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) had 4147, and 720, respectively as of February. Critical oil and gas infrastructure in Rajasthan, including producing fields in Barmer region had been allotted extra security personnel and patrolling from the Armed Forces, sources said.

 

Stocking up food

 

In Punjab, retailers’ stocking had gone up as consumers were buying essentials like baby food, packaged foods, powder milk among other grocery items. A distributor from the border area, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that retailers who typically stock up once a week, had started doing it once every two days.

 

In Jammu, stocks at warehouses were at sufficient levels and supply chains were not impacted. Neeraj Anand, president of Chamber of Traders Federation-Jammu and national vice-president of Confederation of All India Traders said: “Stocks of FMCG items are available in sufficient quantities and we don’t expect any shortfall.”

 

Kashmir had sufficient stocks and would soon get more supplies.

 

Biscuits major Parle Products said that it had ramped up stocks in J&K, Rajasthan, and Punjab by 15-20 per cent. “We have made sure that prime items are stocked in adequate quantities. There shouldn’t be any problem. We have seen a spike in buying, because of concerns among consumers. They have increased buying and pantry loading, but not panic buying,” said Mayank Shah, vice-president, Parle Products.

 

According to wholesale distributors, consumer goods major ITC was ramping up supplies, especially of FMCG products such as atta and biscuits, to service the markets in the border states. Jayen Mehta, managing director at dairy giant Amul, said the supply chain was functioning normally and all dairy plants in Punjab, Gujarat were working. “Dairy procurement has been normal too and fresh milk was supplied on Friday morning in all affected areas, including Jammu. We are working closely with authorities to ensure things operate smoothly. We also do not have a shortage and while supply of fresh milk is smooth, we also have sufficient stock of long shelf life milk and milk powder,” Mehta said. 

Stocking up

 

> Oil marketing firms say they have sufficient stocks of petrol, diesel, CNG, and LPG

> In Jammu, stocks at warehouses were at sufficient levels and supply chains were not impacted

> ITC is ramping up supplies, especially of FMCG products

> Demand for travel bookings on trains and buses from border areas has increased in the past two days

 

Inputs from Dhruvaksh Saha, Subhayan Chakraborty, Akshara Srivastava, Sharleen D’Souza, Shine Jacob, Ishita Ayan Dutt