Kathmandu, February 4:

In order to battle deepening petroleum crisis in the Kathmandu valley, the government has decided to fix a quota system on the distribution of petrol, effective from Monday.

An emergency meeting of the Supply Management Committee headed by Baman Prasad Neupane, joint secretary, ministry of home affairs, decided to slap the quota on petrol supply as two litres for motorcycles and five litres for cars, at one time from a pump.

“The quota system will be imposed on a trial basis until the supply situation gets back to normal,” said Naindra Prasad Upadhaya, joint secretary at the ministry of industry, commerce and supplies.

He further said that the meeting also discussed various ways to ensure a smooth supply of necessary commodities, particularly petroleum products in the valley.

The meeting urged concerned authorities including Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) to seek alternative routes to import petro products like Bhairahawa-Sunauli and Nepalgunj-Rupadiya, since the major import point at Birgunj-Raxaul remained closed for the 19th consecutive day.

The petroleum supply crisis deepened in the Kathmandu valley as transportation remain halted from Raxaul, India, where hundreds of tankers have been stranded, due to the on-going unrest in Terai region for the last two weeks.

The meeting was participated in by joint secretaries from the ministries of home affairs, supplies along representatives of NOC, Nepal Police, Armed Police Force, customs and commerce departments and Nepal Petroleum Dealers’ Association (NPDA).

It also asked the security authorities to be vigilant to avoid possible disturbances and ensure smooth supply of fuel.

The meeting also discussed allowing vehicles fuel supply on even and odd number basis in the Kathmandu valley, if the supply situation further worsens. They also considered importing petroleum through Kakarbhitta-Panitanki route in eastern Nepal, where supply has been hit hard due to the ongoing Terai unrest and closure of Biratnagar-Jogbani route.

Meanwhile, Ichha Bikram Thapa, spokesperson at NOC informed that the sole petroleum supplier today released 84,000 litres petrol, 120,000 litres kerosene and 240,000 litres of diesel from its Thankot depot. He said the supply in the valley would remain disturbed unless transportation through Birgunj-Raxaul route is relieved.

“NOC has already started fetching petroleum products from its Bhairahawa and Nepalgunj depots. So far, we have brought 140,000 litres of petrol, 348,000 litres of diesel and 360,000 litres of kerosene in the last three days,” Thapa told this daily.

On other hand, dealers say that NOC started fetching petroleum only few days ago although supply was abnormal for the last 10 days. The current supply is less than one-third of the effective demand.

“Most pumps out of a total of 114 in the valley have already gone dry. The few ones still distributing fuel are facing problems due to long queues,” said Shiva Prasad Ghimire, president of Nepal Petroleum Dealers’ Association (NPDA).

Besides petrol, shortage in cooking gas (LPG) has also hit the valley hard, as major gas suppliers have already shut down their bottling plants citing lack of stock. More than 60 gas tankers carrying over 1,000 metric tonnes of LPG have been stranded at Raxaul for the past 10 days.