Long queues formed at fuel filling stations across erstwhile Adilabad district

Fuel panic buying led to long queues and shortages across Adilabad and nearby districts, with many stations running dry. Officials attributed the crisis to increased demand amid West Asia tensions and said steps are underway to stabilise supplies

Adilabad: Long queues are seen at most of the fuel filling stations across erstwhile Adilabad district on Wednesday with around 50 percent of stations going dry amid imagined shortage of petrol and diesel following west Asia conflict.

Motorists queued up for purchasing both petrol and diesel in Adilabad, Nirmal, Mancherial and Kumram Bheem Asifabad districts since morning. Some of them were seen carrying plastic cans to buy fuel at the stations for future needs, resulting in high demand and drying up of petrol and diesel.

They expressed displeasure over scarcity of petrol and diesel at the stations. They regretted that they were facing inconvenience while waiting in long queues for quite a long time. They said the long wait was resulting in delay in reaching offices and affecting day-to-day activities as well. The customers urged the government to take steps to ensure sufficient supply of fuel and to avoid inconvenience.

Owners of the fuel stations expressed their inability to address the shortage of the fuel across the four districts. They said that major oil companies were not releasing stocks of fuel in the stations in advance as practiced in the past. They stated that fuel filling stations were recording a steep rise in sales over the last few days. At least 50 percent of stations went dry, they disclosed.

Officials claimed that steps were being taken to address the shortage and to prevent inconvenience to the customers. They stated that the quota of oil supplied to the districts and stocks of both petrol and diesel were being tracked. They reasoned panic sales resulted in shortage. They added the revenue officials were pressed to coordinate with officials and representatives of the oil companies.

Meanwhile, consumers of LPG cylinders swarmed companies of the energy in certain parts of Nirmal and Adilabad districts.