Chennai: Many offices in Chennai have been forced to allow their staff to work-from-home today, after petrol pumps remain closed for the third day in a row because of lack of supplies from oil companies. Most petrol pumps in the city are shut and the few that have limited supplies are witnessing chaotic scenes since steepest ever petrol price hike last Wednesday.
Only a few bunks are open in the city, where only a motorist is only allowed to buy a litre or two at a time. The bunk owners here instructed motorists to park their vehicles on the road, leading to a traffic jam, and come in only with 1 or 2 litre bottles.
Two wheeler motorists are the ones who are the most affected. On the day of the announcement of the hike, many bunks ran out of stock of diesel. By the end of last week, a good number of bunks were selling only premium petrol at eighty rupees a litre, effectively taking the hike to over eleven rupees, temporarily. Petrol pump owners, speaking to NDTV on condition of anonymity, deny charges of hoarding and plead helplessness due to "lack of supplies from the companies."
Samuel Rajkumar, a driver fumed, "I stood in the queue for three hours from 5 am. At 8 am I got diesel for Rs 500. When I asked if I could get some more, I was told to go back to the end of the queue."
Quite like the mad rush for application forms for school admission, many motorists particularly auto drivers and others made a beeline at pumps before the crack of dawn for a few litres.
"Are the oil companies playing mind games with us? Create an artificial scarcity so that we would think its ok to shell out more as long as we get to fill our tanks" asked another irate customer.
The reason for the pumps drying up over the last 48 hours is being attributed to "no supplies from oil companies." When contacted, the Indian Oil Corporation Public Relations Officer Vetri Selvam told NDTV that he will "issue a statement shortly after discussing with the Executive Director." However oil companies say the situation will improve by tomorrow.
The AIADMK is slated to stage a demonstration against the hike across Tamil Nadu today and the DMK will hold its protest on Wednesday. Meanwhile, it's not the hike but the scarcity of petrol that has left people in Chennai worried.
Sources have told NDTV that the "shortage may continue for another two or three days and is due to reduced supply of Euro 4 grade fuel. Two Euro 4 grade tanker ships are expected to arrive at the Madras Refinery tomorrow. There has also been an unplanned shut down of MRPL & CPCL refineries in April for almost a month and over a week respectively."
Only a few bunks are open in the city, where only a motorist is only allowed to buy a litre or two at a time. The bunk owners here instructed motorists to park their vehicles on the road, leading to a traffic jam, and come in only with 1 or 2 litre bottles.
Two wheeler motorists are the ones who are the most affected. On the day of the announcement of the hike, many bunks ran out of stock of diesel. By the end of last week, a good number of bunks were selling only premium petrol at eighty rupees a litre, effectively taking the hike to over eleven rupees, temporarily. Petrol pump owners, speaking to NDTV on condition of anonymity, deny charges of hoarding and plead helplessness due to "lack of supplies from the companies."
Samuel Rajkumar, a driver fumed, "I stood in the queue for three hours from 5 am. At 8 am I got diesel for Rs 500. When I asked if I could get some more, I was told to go back to the end of the queue."
Quite like the mad rush for application forms for school admission, many motorists particularly auto drivers and others made a beeline at pumps before the crack of dawn for a few litres.
"Are the oil companies playing mind games with us? Create an artificial scarcity so that we would think its ok to shell out more as long as we get to fill our tanks" asked another irate customer.
The reason for the pumps drying up over the last 48 hours is being attributed to "no supplies from oil companies." When contacted, the Indian Oil Corporation Public Relations Officer Vetri Selvam told NDTV that he will "issue a statement shortly after discussing with the Executive Director." However oil companies say the situation will improve by tomorrow.
The AIADMK is slated to stage a demonstration against the hike across Tamil Nadu today and the DMK will hold its protest on Wednesday. Meanwhile, it's not the hike but the scarcity of petrol that has left people in Chennai worried.
Sources have told NDTV that the "shortage may continue for another two or three days and is due to reduced supply of Euro 4 grade fuel. Two Euro 4 grade tanker ships are expected to arrive at the Madras Refinery tomorrow. There has also been an unplanned shut down of MRPL & CPCL refineries in April for almost a month and over a week respectively."
