Kathmandu, February 24 A market monitoring team led by Minister for Supplies Ganesh Man Pun has directed the Thankot Depot of Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) to dispatch fuel tankers to the fuel stations early in the morning. Currently, the Thankot Depot of NOC has been dispatching fuel tankers to service stations of the Valley only in the second half of the day. Because of this, motorists and motorcyclists have been compelled to queue for fuel till the wee hours at the fuel stations. During the inspection of Thankot Depot, Minister Pun instructed the depot chief to start work from 7:00am till the supply situation normalises in Kathmandu Valley. NOC had stared distributing fuel from all fuel stations in the Valley from February 12 and ramped up its supply by over 100,000 litres per day than during normal times since February 15. Per day consumption of petrol in the Valley hovers at around 350,000 litres during normal times. NOC also lifted fuel rationing for private vehicles — five litres of petrol for two-wheelers and 15 litres for four-wheelers — from Tuesday in a bid to normalise the supply situation as soon as possible. However, even with the additional measures in place, the serpentine queues can still be seen in front of fuel stations. After the inspection of Thankot Depot today, Minister Pun directed the NOC management to set up additional storage tanks of petrol and diesel at the Depot so that the demand of fuel for at least 25 days in the Valley could be met. The existing storage capacity is sufficient to cater to only five days’ demand of petrol and diesel in the Valley.