Citizens in trouble as petrol shortage worsens in city

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

* Petrol stations provide motorcycles with maximum Rs 200 worth of petrol, cars get Rs 500 of fuel

By Shabbir Sarwar

LAHORE: Citizens faced massive transportation problems due to a further increase in the shortage of petrol in the city, as fuel remained available at only five to 10 percent of filling stations due to supply problems, Daily Times learnt on Friday.

Long queues of commuters were seen at some filling stations situated on Davis Road, Empress Road, Shahra-e-Fatima Jinnah, Johar Town, Defence Housing Authority (DHA) and Barkat Market, where limited supply of fuel to citizens increased for the worse. Keeping in view the gap between demand and supply, these petrol pumps were providing only Rs 100-200 of fuel to motorcyclists and up to Rs 500 of fuel to cars.

Since Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) was available in the city, the shortage of petrol mainly irked motorcyclists and the car owners who were having single fuel consumption facilities in their vehicles.

Asghar Ali, who was taking petrol from Empress Road near the Lahore Press Club, said he only had petrol facility in his car and it was a huge problem for him. “I have to reach DHA and I could only get Rs 400 of petrol due to the limited supply.”

Gulfam Khan, a citizen, was requesting Rs 500 of petrol for his bike, however the filling man refused and provided him with only Rs 200 worth of fuel. “Our manager has ordered us to not give more than Rs 200 of fuel to motorcyclists so that we can provide fuel to maximum people,” he said.

Some citizens were requesting provision of petrol in bottles after their vehicles stopped at roadsides when their fuel tanks became empty.

Pakistan Petroleum Dealers Association Senior Vice President Chaudhry Sadiq told Daily Times that there were three reasons behind the shortage of petrol in the city. “Firstly, PARCO, the largest refinery in the country, is unable to supply petrol due to damages suffered in the recent floods. Secondly, petrol is mainly coming from Karachi and due to damages to roads, the supply system has been slowed downed and thirdly, most drivers of oil tankers have not come back from Eid holidays,” he said.

Sadiq said the situation would improve during the next week because the PARCO refineries situated in Mahmood Kot, Kot Addu district and Muzaffargarh had started work and would resume supply from Monday.

Delayed payments by the government to the Pakistan State Oil was another reason for the shortage, he added.

To a question, he said there was no problem in the supply of diesel because it comes through pipelines and for Lahore, supply had smoothly continued from Machekey, Sargodha Road Sheikhupura.