In a month a fuel pump sells about 200 kilo-litres of petrol and 140 kilo-litres of diesel in Mumbai. The rush that the city has seen since 9pm on Tuesday might change these numbers substantially, said fuel dealers.
The government's decision to allow these two demonetised notes at fuel stations caused a massive rush at pumps with owners witnessing 'enhanced buying' as motorists bought fuel worth Rs 500 or Rs 1,000 or multiples of this in order to exhaust the notes of these two denominations. This meant that several pumps faced 'part dry-outs' every four to five hours, a situation where a fuel station runs out of petrol or diesel and a truckload has to be called in for immediate replenishment from the designated oil-marketing companies. Each truckload consists of 20,000 litres of fuels.
Speaking to DNA, Ravi Shinde of the Petrol Dealers Association said, "On an average day, we get about two truckloads of fuel. But since last night most of the big pumps in the city have called in at least four truckloads. This is because people are buying almost two to three times the average fuel that they usually buy."
A huge reason for the enhanced buying was because pump attendants had run out of change by three to four hours after the Prime Minister's announcement. "Though attendants keep change, but since just about everybody was fishing out a Rs 500 or a Rs 1,000 note, we were having a problem. There were minor arguments with some motorists who were wanting fuel for a particular amount and wanted the rest returned. However most were cooperative,\" said a pump attendant in Worli.
In a month a fuel pump sells about 200 kilo-litres of petrol and 140 kilo-litres of diesel in Mumbai. The rush that the city has seen since 9pm on Tuesday might change these numbers substantially, said fuel dealers.
"The rush should hopefully ease out by Thursday because a large number of motorists might have already tanked up. So it will be back to normal. It is just that we were all unprepared because something like this had never happened before," Shinde said.
The fuel pump dry-outs hit public transport in a big way with several rickshaws and taxis off the roads. "Rickshaw drivers were refused at several pumps because the attendants had run out of change. The problem is that unlike private vehicles which have bigger capacity and can fill up for Rs 500 of Rs 1,000. A rickshaw can at most fill up about 3.5kg of compressed natural gas costing about Rs 120. So if he has a Rs 500 rupee note, the attendant has to return Rs 380 which was becoming a hassle," explained Thampi Kurien of the Mumbai Rickshawmen Union.
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