City fuel pumps to remain open on Sunday and lockdown days: Retailers body

Fuel outlets in the megapolis and the suburbs will remain open but with skeletal staff on Sunday and will operate only from 7 am to 7 pm from Monday till March 31 as the city is under lockdown. The curtailed operations on Sunday is in response to the voluntary curfew call to public by the prime minister, the city's dealers body said. "The timing will be revised at the end of this month," the Mumbai Petrol Dealers Association said on Saturday.

Curtailed time is an attempt to reduce risk of exposure to the pump attendants and yet keep the essential service open to the public albeit in limited hours, the statement said. "No employees will lose their salaries for reduced working hours," the statement added. The 213-odd fuel pumps normally operate 20 hrs a day.

It can be noted that Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray had ordered closure of all private offices and shops selling non-essential items in Mumbai, and the adjoining metropolitan areas, Pune, Nagpur and other major cities of the from the midnight of Friday through March 31 as the state continues to top the number of Covid cases. The state was the second to report a casualty in the country when a Mumbai resident died of the virus last week.