Fuel shortage in Chennai will end tonight: Jaya

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Tuesday said that the shortage of petrol and diesel in Chennai will come to an end by tonight.

In a statement, she said that three ships carrying 67,000 kilo litre of petrol and diesel from Kochi had reached the Chennai harbour and instructions had been given to immediately deliver the fuel to all the bunks in the city.

This is in addition to the 2,000 kilo litre of fuel coming from Bangalore. The daily consumption of fuel in the state capital is estimated to be around 2,100 litre, while it is around 2,500 litre in the case of diesel.

 

Chennai port officials confirmed the development and said that Pratibha Warna, an oil tanker carrying high-speed diesel (HSD), had been berthed at the Chennai port. The ship was brought by Indian Oil Corporation.

The officials added that the ship was carrying 19,162 tonne of HSD, with nearly 4,500 tonne discharged by the third shift last night. The balance quantity will be discharged by the end of the day or tomorrow morning.

One more ship has been anchored on the outer harbour and is expected to be berthed once Pratibha Warna moves out of the port, they added.

It may be noted that around 1,000 petrol bunks in and around Chennai went dry for the last two days.

The increased demand for petrol and diesel for power generation has led to the fuel shortage for consumers in and around Chennai. While this was the reason stated by the oil companies, petrol bunk operators maintained that there was a shortage of Euro IV-compliant petrol, which has to be used in Chennai and other places in the state.

The petrol owners are also of the view that this could be an artificial shortage created by the oil marketing companies to make people forget about the recent price hike.