Visakhapatnam: AP Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu held a conference with senior officials from various departments, district collectors, and representatives of oil companies over the shortage of petrol and diesel.
The CM directed the officials to continuously monitor the situation until the supply of petrol and diesel returns to normal.
Petrol, Diesel shortage on the weekend:
According to local reports, petrol and diesel remained unavailable at 40% fuel stations across the state on Saturday and Sunday. At the remaining locations where fuel is available, motorists were confronted with long queues. It is likely to take another day for the situation to return to normal.
Several vehicles including cars, trucks, two-wheelers, and others were seen queuing at petrol pumps across Rajahmundry, Nandyal, Kurnool, Vijayawada, Guntur and other areas over the weekend and on Monday.
Gopal Krishna, a member of the fuel retailers association said that the situation has spread across the state. “We are receiving information that diesel is getting exhausted everywhere from our dealers. We are expecting the situation to be back to normal by Tuesday, April 28.”
He claimed that oil companies withheld fuel from dealers and stopped diesel supply, which is why the crisis occurred.
Although fuel supplies to petrol pumps improved on Monday compared to Saturday and Sunday, hundreds of vehicles were already waiting at the stations even before the tankers arrived.
Tankers are being dispatched primarily to urban and city areas where demand is high, while dealers report that supplies to rural areas remain meager.