Government sends executives, engineers of state energy companies like IOC to quake-hit Nepal

NEW DELHI: The government is sending teams of senior executives and engineers from state-run energy companies to Nepal with a view to ensuring uninterrupted fuel supply and restoring power lines in the quake-struck country.

In the first phase, a team of 4-5 senior executives from flagship refiner-marketer Indian Oil Corporation and more than a dozen engineers from transmission utility PowerGrid Corporation are scheduled to leave for Kathmandu on Monday morning.

"We have established contact with Nepal Oil Corporation and assured them of our full cooperation in maintaining fuel supplies. We are constantly monitoring the stock position of all products at our main dispatch centre in Raxaul and their depots in Amalekhganj. Both have comfortable stock positions," Indian Oil chairman B Ashok told TOI on Sunday.

Nepal gets all its petro products from India under a government-to-government dispensation. Indian Oil supplies more than a million tonne of various fuels in a month. This consists of 26,000-27,000 tonnes of cooking gas and 0.8 million tonne of petrol, diesel and kerosene.

Other company executives said Indian Oil has set up a control cell in Delhi to coordinate with the oil ministry and the Nepalese embassy soon after the quake hit Nepal on Saturday. Another cell has been set up in Mumbai, the company's marketing headquarters, to ensure dispatch of products on priority.

Ashok said Indian Oil was also meeting the additional demand for jet fuel from the Indian Air Force, which is at the forefront of relief and rescue operations, at Hindon, Gorakhpur or any other military airport from where choppers and cargo aircraft are taking off on 'Operation Maitri' - as the Nepal operation has been named.

A team of 14 engineers from PowerGrid are also scheduled to leave for Kathmandu to help restore power lines. The team was scheduled to fly out on Sunday but could not because of bad weather. "If required, we will send more people," a company executive told TOI.

There is no disruption of supply of 100 mw from India, which is distributed among consumers in the plains of Nepal bordering India.