Petrol crisis not likely to ease soon, oil train stuck, no early respite from crisis

Tripura faces severe shortages of fuel and almost all fuel pumps across the state are running shortage of petrol and diesel due to movement of passengers and transport of goods, including essentials, has been affected in southern Assam, Tripura, Mizoram and Manipur for the past two weeks, due to the restricted movement of trains in the region.

Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) sources said that the operation of passenger and goods trains has been affected since April 25 owing to heavy landslides and damage to railway tracks after heavy rains in Assam’s mountainous Dima Hasao district, which is a connecting route to south Assam, Tripura, Manipur, and Mizoram.

Hundreds of workers and technicians, led by several top railway engineers, are working round-the-clock to fully restore the train services between Jatinga-Lumpur and New Harangajao stations under the Lumding division of NFR.

The shortage of petrol and diesel on Thursday  became worse and among 12 fuel pumps across Agartala, only few pumps started distribution of petrol amid long queues of motorcycle riders and light vehicles. Shutters of almost all petrol pumps in the capital town remained down on Thursday also as petrol and diesel have got exhausted due to less supply. Prices of potato and onion have been increasing with every passing day due to shortage in the supply of wholesale markets.

 The prospect of an early restoration of normalcy in transporting the petroleum products and other essential commodities is very less as both the Railway and the state government virtually surrendered and failed to give any time frame to normalize the supplies. Though claiming to have sufficient stock the state government urged the people to keep patience while the railway on Thursday has also cancelled one more train. No official time frame has been given about restoration of normalcy but unofficial sources say at least one more week will require restoring normalcy.

As an experimentally run oil wagon train from Guwahati gets stuck on the railway track at hilly Jatinga Lumpur areas in Assam falls under  Lumding - Badarpur NF Railway Division last night, said Nirmal Adhikary, Director Food on Thursday. He said the state has a substantial buffer stock of essential commodities including oil and diesel and urges everyone to keep cooperating with the government to overcome this temporary inconvenience.

Meanwhile, the NF Railway authority said that an all-out effort has been made to restore the service, and work is going on a war footing way to get the faulty track repaired at the earliest. And, given the ongoing track repairing work at KM-110/7 between Jatinga Lumpur and  New Harangajao under Lumding division, train services scheduled between Guwahati-Silchar-Guwahati have been canceled said Sabyasachi De, Chief Public Relation Officer, NF Railway in a press statement.

A senior railway official however skeptically indicated that the railway line is severely damaged as it cannot carry the load of the goods train and the line sits on the ground, from which it may take 7-10 days to recover. With the collapse of the railway track in the hilly areas in Assam, the supply chain of fuel is once again put in a dilemma.

Due to heavy rains in the Jatinga-Lumpur area of the lower part of the railway line, essential goods including petrol and diesel have been imported into the state by road for the past few days and this will continue until the restoration of goods train service, said the Director Food after reviewing ongoing situation on Thursday.

 In a press release issued by the Food, Civil Supply & Consumer Affairs Department, Additional Secretary cum Director Nirmal Adhikari said in this situation, IOCL authorities are regularly importing Petrol and Diesel from different oil depots of Assam including  Betkuchi, Lumding,    and Silchar through truck oil-tankers to the state to get rid of the crisis. At present, Petrol Pumps in various subdivisions of the state, including IOCL’s depot at Dharmanagar, are running a bit low on petrol and diesel but efforts are underway to normalize it soon. Essential foodstuffs, oil, and various utility products will be brought to the state by road until the railway services are normalized in the next few days.

Meanwhile, Agartala continues to witness an abnormally long queue of hundreds of motorbikes waiting at all fuel outlets in the city for nine consecutive days on Thursday. Meanwhile, on April 26, 2024, Tuesday, the state government put a cap on sales of petrol and diesel to get rid of the situation that arose after the disruption of goods and train service.