Shiva’s Mind Inspirations - Me Being Myself

Everyone should now be aware of the Petrol and Diesel crisis in Chennai since yesterday. The consignments with petrol and diesel to the bunks have not reached since yesterday afternoon. CNN IBN reported that they are expected before 1 PM today.

While I did not have ‘Ground Zero’ experience, my friend Luke had and this post is an account of his experience.

There is heavy police presence in many bunks and people are going crazy. They are should shouting and screaming everywhere.

In a nutshell, this is the current scenario

1. Huge crowds and traffic jams at all petrol bunks. I saw herd of cars and bikes converging from the roads into the bunk(there by contributing to traffic jams as well).

2. Black marketing of petrol. Random people get fuel in big cans and selling it. I heard that they have setup quasi-shops near to the bunks selling petrol at Rs.100 per litre(I am sure they would have made good money). Who knows if they have some tie ups with the bunk owners.

I remember since the price hike, Indian Oil bunks never has Unleaded Petrol and they claimed no one in the city has. While Bharat Petroleum bunks always had only unleaded petrol. Strange!

3. Many forced to take Auto or Bus. Think about it. These vehicles are already overloaded, can’t imagine the plight of people today.

4. Auto fares almost double. This is with specific reference to the pride of Chennai ‘Share Autos’. They are having the time of their life charging double the rates from last week. Who knows the auto guys could become the next millionaires if the situation prevails for a few days.

Another friend of mine tried filling his bike since yesterday and finally was able to do it today morning after 45 minutes of wait. Yeah, he had to go early around 6.30 AM to fill petrol. He told me that even at such an early hour,  there was a big queue of more than 30 people. He filled his petrol in the bunk next to Malar Hospital in Adyar.

I checked with my friends in Hyderabad and Bangalore. Seems like Chennai is the only one on the crisis radar as of yesterday.

Any of you who reads this, if you come to know that a particular bunk is back into action, please leave a comment with the details for the benefit of other readers.

Update - 11. 55 AM:

It seems the bunks are restricting sale of petrol to a few litres per vehicle and diesel for not more than Rs. 200. The government apparently has given an assurance that this will be sorted within 24 hours. Until, only restricted sales as long as existing supplies last.

Update - 1.35 PM:

This piece of update is from my friend Sunil.

• He says that when the small bunks tell that they have no fuel, they are 100% true. But when the big bunks say so, they will surely have some fuel left but want to avoid running dry. Hence they say they don’t have fuel and but will reopen after 5-6 hours.
• The news today is that if people see bunks closed with ‘No Petrol/Diesel’ sign, they just seem to queue up(like they might do in theatres or shows) on the assumption that the bunks will get fuel soon in a few hours.
• Another piece of news is that in some areas the ‘Share Auto’ rates have tripled(or may they already were?!).

Update - July 02 2008 9.55 AM:

Saw a couple of bunks on Old Mahabalipuram Road(OMR).

• The one next to SRP Tools seems to be empty. I think they are probably out of fuel(as the case shouldn’t be of no customers
• The one in front of Prince Infocity seems to have a big queue(not as crazy as yesterday), so they must be rationing fuel like yesterday.

Rajesh, a friend of mine, got full tank yesterday night from Shell bunk @ Velachery. He also mentioned that there was no queue at all. So my guess would be that shell (throughout Chennai) probably has good amount of fuel, so you might want to check it out.

I was watching CNN IBN today morning for some updates. They are so efficient that they were replaying the news piece from yesterday night. It was confusing. But its safe to assume that the crisis is far from over. It might take till this weekend for things to return normal. Hopefully we should get unleaded fuel too. <<fingers crossed>>

Update - July 02 2008 10.25 AM:

I heard my colleagues say that they were able to fill petrol easily and there were no queues in the bunks (one near Raj Bhavan and the other near Guru Nanak College). While I heard another friend confirming status quo from yesterday(Indian Oil, Ponneri). So probably the situation is changing in heart of Chennai.