The drivers refused to transport fuel following an attack on tankers by Tharuhat protestors while the tankers were being escorted from Birgunj. A tanker helper was injured in the attack. The tanker staff stopped working, saying that they did not believe in security arrangements made by the government.
They had demanded the government to compensate the damage to the vehicles and staff, make arrangements to import fuel during day time and beef up security if it wished them to return to work.
However, the returned to work after an emergency meeting of NOC Board agreed to fulfill their demands. Though they returned to work late in the evening, the day´s supply had already been affected.
Prior to the attack, officials had said that the corporation had transported 133 tankers (about 2,100 kiloliters) of petroleum products via Amlekhgunj on Sunday. Of them, 96 tankers were dispatched to Kathmandu on Sunday night itself.
However, owing to the lack of coordination between the drivers and the security agencies in Chitwan, where curfew was imposed from 12 pm to 3 am to pass the vehicles, only half of them reached Kathmandu.
"Sadly, even that fuel could not be distributed till late in the evening due to the strike," said Ramesh Koirala, deputy director of the corporation.
As a result, some 103 private dealers had their refilling stations shut down. Long queues were seen at the army and police run refilling stations.
The market has gone almost dry for the last few days after NOC distributed a mere 30 percent of the required volume in the market over the last few days, saying that its stock had dwindled and supplies badly affected due to 35 days of highway closures during the last two months.
To prevent the market from going completely dry, the government has imposed night curfew in Bara and Chitwan so that NOC could move tankers through.
"Yesterday we brought in 133 tankers of fuel. Today, 150 additional tankers have already reached Raxaul for fresh consignment," said Koirala.
Despite all these effort, sources at the corporation told myrepublica.com that consumers would continue to suffer from the short supply. Reasons: the volume of imports made amid odds always remains short than normal imports. On top of that, the corporation has no stock to match with the demand. Disturbance in the supply process just for a day affects the supply for many days.
While officials admitted that the saga of present problem has to do with the myopic and insufficient inventory management of the corporation, they noted that solution out of it lies firstly on addressing the Tharuhat protest and secondly on revamping NOC´s inventory management and operations once the present shortage end.
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