Thori has become a fuel fete for people from different parts of the country, as the fuel crisis deepens due to the blockage of supplies from India.
With so many people heading for Thori, the number of vehicles plying along the Bharatpur-Madi-Thori postal road section has increased all of a sudden.
Thori is around 85 kilometers from Bharatpur, district headquarters of Chitwan. Once people reach Thori, which borders India, they can often get petrol, diesel and LPG cylinders, according to the consumers.
Police Inspector Nirmal Thapa at the area police office (APO) based at Madi told Republica that people travelling to Thori receive petroleum products from locals and from relatives in the area.
"People converging on Thori don't go to the nearby Indian markets directly for their petroleum products," Thapa said. He added that local traders, who bring these items from across the Indian border, have been selling the same illegally to people from different parts of the country.
Authorities hesitate to provide exact details about the fuel being brought into the country through Thori. However, the amount of petroleum products involved can be estimated to be huge in quantity, going by the flow of vehicles both big and small.
Besides, there is a long queue of motorbikes on the road section on a daily basis. A motorbike carries three to four cans of petroleum products.
Fuel worth Rs 260m being smuggled via Thori per day
Hundred vehicles transport petroleum products from Thori to other parts of the country on a daily basis, informed another police inspector, Dhruba Shrestha, who has just been transferred here.
He added that 40,000-50,000 liters of fuel per day is transported through Thori.
"Sometimes, the Indian authorities do not allow the movement of petroleum products but they are not so strict," Inspector Shrestha said.
According to locals, a liter of petrol or diesel costs around Rs 115 at pumps in India. The same quantity when brought to Thori fetches up to Rs 150. Sometimes, people have to pay as much as Rs 200 per liter of petrol or diesel.
Meanwhile, SP Basant Kunwar, chief of District Police Office (DPO) Chitwan, claimed that the blackmarket in petroleum products coming through Thori has been stopped except for what is needed for household purposes.
However, the quantity of fuel brought through Thori shows that it is obviously not used for household purposes alone.
