Indian Oil Corporation sends petrol tankers to Tripura on train

KOLKATA: Some 19 tanker trucks loaded with a total 276 thousand litres of petrol diesel and kerosene and 2 more with tankers filled with 14 tonnes of LPG drove onto a flatbed goods train, which then chugged off to Tripura.

The National Highway 44 which serves as an important link in the region has been washed off at different locations making Tripura inaccessible on road. The regions started to see acute shortage of petroleum products.

Indian Oil Corporation entered into talks with North Frontier Railways and arranged for a “Roll On Roll off” goods train facility in Tripura Churaibari. Trucks loaded with fuel rolls on to these rakes. They roll off when the rake has reached its destination.

“Supply of petroleum products to Tripura has been severely affected due to the heavy rains and the dismal condition of the highway – NH 44 leading to Assam. Reaching fuel to the rain ravaged state has become a herculean task after a large portion of the road has become non-motorable. State government had to resort to the rationing of fuels in the state to tide over the crisis. IOC under the guidance of petroleum ministry in deliberations with the state government has organized the transportation of petroleum products through Roll On Roll Off), wherein the tank trucks carrying petroleum products and LPG Bullets are loaded on open railway wagons for movement,” said a senior IOC official.

The rake carrying trucks loaded with IOC’s petroleum product was flagged off from Bhanga, near Silchar in Assam to reach Churaibari in Tripura. Despite the prohibitive costs, IndianOil has undertaken this initiative to bolster the supply of petroleum products in Tripura.

It allowed the state government to withdraw rationing of petro-products effective today. Simultaneously, as per petroleum ministry’s advice, IOC trucks are also being re-routed to Tripura through an alternate route, reserved exclusively for POL and LPG movement.

However, it has resulted in increased turn-around time for all trucks. An alternate route via Bangladesh has been identified for fuel transportation in future, during such exigencies. This is under advance stages of finalization with ministry of external affairs.

Usually IOC supplies products to Tripura from its depot at Dharmanagar (Tripura). Since October 2014, the products are received at Dharamanagar Depot from IOC’s Guwahati depot (Betkuchi) by road.