Petroleum supply resumes in capital

KATHMANDU, April 4 - Following the agreement with the government, the transport entrepreneurs resumed the supply of petroleum products from Saturday.

The petroleum transport entrepreneurs agreed to resume supply after the government on Friday agreed not to prohibit the old tankers from carrying oil.

According to The Federation of Petroleum Products Transporters vice chairman Siddhi Lal Shrestha, the depot of Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) at Thankot resumed supplying petroleum products to various petrol pumps of the capital since 10 this morning.

Likewise, about 150 tankers will be brought from Raxaul to the capital from Sunday evening.
The tankers have already headed for Raxaul to load petroleum products, Shrestha informed.

The entrepreneurs had called strike demanding that NOC scrap the new provision under which tankers more than 20 years old have been prohibited from carrying oil. It had also demanded that Indian tankers be banned from transporting oil.

The NOC had recently decided to buy a number of tankers as per its reform programme.

It said that of the 1,200 private-owned tankers in the country, around 200 were more than 20 years old and thus vulnerable to accidents.