Worse is, the corporation on the day declared that its depot at Thankot, the main distribution outlet for the Kathmandu Valley, has dried out of petrol stock. “Even the fuel distributed today was received from Bhairahawa. Otherwise, we have no petrol in Thankot,” said Ramesh Koirala, deputy director (Distribution) of the corporation.
Officials stated that the corporation´s petrol stock in Amlekhgunj too has lowered sharply.
Of the total 60 KL distributed on the day, the corporation had supplied half of it to the pumps run by institutional like army, police and Sajha Cooperatives and the rest to the private dealers. As a result, long queues of consumers were seen at the refilling stations that received popular vehicular fuel on the day.
The corporation officials further stated that they expect the situation to ease somewhat when the private sector dealers receive 96 KL of petrol that it distributed from Amlekhgunj.
For Tuesday, the NOC is planning to distribute 80 KL of petrol. It is sourcing the fuel yet again from Bhairahawa for Tuesday´s supplies.
"We could have received 150 KL of petrol from Raxaul on Monday had there not been general strike in Birgunj," said Koirala, but given the situation, he doubted over receiving the consignments by early Tuesday.
What this means is, consumers plight in the Valley might not end anytime soon. Concerned NOC officials attributed the problem to unforeseen incident of closure of the government offices in Birgunj following the manhandling of the Chief District Officer there by the Minister of State for Agriculture and Cooperatives.
"The strike brought import from Raxaul to a grinding halt for five days. Even though offices resumed works on Monday, Matrika Yadav faction of Maoist has organized Birgunj banda," said Koirala, arguing that the cause of the problem was not in corporation´s hand.
However, knowledgeable people stated that the heart of the problem lies in the corporation itself, and it is related to NOC´s poor storage capacity and vulnerable inventory management.
According to the statistics, the corporation presently has capacity to stock mere 1,800 KL of petrol in Thankot. If dead stock -- stock that cannot be taken out due to piping system -- is also to be accounted for, this stock will barely keep the supplies going for 5 day.
Its petrol storage capacity at Amlekhgunj, the largest depot, too is mere 1,960 KL. Moreover, given that Amlekhgunj needs to distribute petrol to the other markets of the country, it can support supplies in Kathmandu for additional one day only.
"It is no wonder that shortage hits valley as soon as imports face disturbances for even a couple of days," said an expert. He even added that consumers will continue to suffer from sudden shortages until and unless NOC addressed this constraint.
Present Storage Capacity (in KL)
| Petrol | Diesel | |
| Kathmandu | 1,800 | 8,400 |
| Amlekhgunj | 1,960 | 16,100 |
| Biratnagar | 560 | 8,510 |
| Pokhara | 350 | 2,280 |
| Bhairahawa | 140 | 3,055 |
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