Petrol pumps owners bear brunt of blockade

Petrol pump owners across the country are facing mounting losses in the last two weeks due to the BNP-sponsored transport blockade, reports bdnews24.com.
The retailers said they cannot collect oil from the depots regularly fearing arson. At the same time, the sale at pumps has fallen, as sufficient transports are not plying during the blockade fearing attacks.
With the help of the police, the pumps in the violence-prone areas have overcome the crisis of collecting oil.
But some pumps on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway, the highways in the northern districts, and in greater Sylhet are continuing to face the crises.
Khaleque and Sons Filling Station on Dhaka-Chittagong highway collects oil regularly from Meghna Petroleum Depot in Chandpur.
Owner of the pump Fakhrul Islam Chowdhury said he could not collect oil from Chandpur for 11 days. The sale also decreased after the blockade started.
"We generally sell 5,000-7,000 litres of petrol, diesel and octane on an average daily. The sale decreased to only 1,000 litres. I'll lose around Tk 300,000 this month if the blockade continues," he said.
The depots in greater Sylhet faced a fuel crisis last week. The situation improved slightly after an oil-laden wagon train from Chittagong reached Sylhet on last Tuesday.
Around 750,000 litres fuel oil reached the Padma, Meghna and Jamuna depots that day and the distribution to the pumps in the region resumed.
Besides, fuel oil is being sent through waterway from Narayanganj's Fatulla.
Bangladesh Petroleum Dealer, Distributor and Petrol Pump Owners Association's Sylhet Division Organising Secretary Mohammad Akhtar Faruq Liton said 167 pumps in four districts of the division are facing the crisis.
But the supply situation got better after the consignment on the oil tanker train arrived on Tuesday.
Besides, the fuel oil produced in the Kailashtila Gas Field meets 20 per cent demand of fuel in Sylhet.
But filling station owners in Sunamganj said the sale decreased due to less traffic.
Cynthia Filling Station owner Sajeeb Ranjan Das said the daily demand of fuel oil was between 8,000-10,000 litres. "But we cannot sell more than 2,000-3,000 litres during the blockade. The supply is low, too," he said.
Abdur Rahman, an official of Sohag Filling Station at Gabtoli in Dhaka, also said that the sale dropped.
Mohona Filling Station in the same area is selling 6,000 litres oil a day. Before the blockade, the sale was around 15,000 litres a day, its Manager Ismail Hossain said.
Dinajpur's Parbatipur, Sirajganj's Baghabari and Kurigram's Chilmari depots supply oil to pumps of eight districts in Rangpur division.
Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) Bogra regional control centre's Coordinator Anwarul Islam said the depots had sufficient oil to supply.