Imphal, July 02 2009: Manipur state having no its own resource is spending Rs 1,356 crore in a year in buying petroleum products said a source from the Indian Oil Corporation office, BT road today.

With the increase of number of vehicles run by fuels, the quantity of import of these fuels is also increasing.

The consumption of patrol was increased by 30 percent this year from the previous year while that of diesel by 27 percent.

State consumed patrol at the rate 15,000 kilolitre, 3,500 kilolitre, 2000 kerosene per month.

With 80 percent of these fuels consumed, Imphal west recorded highest among the nine districts of the state in the consumption of the fuels, the official said.

In the state, 18,000 kilolitre of patrol is consumed in a year while that 42,000 kilolitre of diesel consumed during the same period of time.

The total number of kerosene consumed in a year is 24,000 in a year.

While calculating the rate of consumption of the fuels, Manipur spend Rs 45 crores in buying patrol, Rs 63 crore in diesel and Rs 20 crore in buying kerosene.

Thus, a total fund of Rs 1,356 crores is spending by the state in buying petroleum products from outside the state.

The said calculation does not counted expenditure incurred by the state in buying LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) commonly known as cooking gas as the IOC office in Imphal have no compile reports of the same.

But it is estimated that around one lakh households are using cooking gas and on this account state is spending a huge amount of fund in importing the LPG.

The only way to safe state this state funds in buying the petroleum is using automobiles bicycle at the maximum for travelling short distances, according to observers.

The state oil depot at Chingmeirong has storage capacity of only 16 days for petrol, 18 days for diesel and 32 days for kerosene.

As there were no facilities to store more quantities of these fuels in the retail outlets, state government is planning to construct government oil depot centre a place in Imphal west which would be a rail fed one after railway line reached the state capital.

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