Silchar depot to mitigate fuel shortage crises
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, December 17 2019: The crisis of fuel shortage encountered by the State due to different reasons will be mitigated remarkably once the IOCL's rail-fed oil depot being constructed at Silchar is commissioned.

LPG supply will also improve considerably if the proposed project of laying gas pipeline from Habiya, West Bengal to Silchar is implemented.

At the moment, fuel deposited at Malom depot are brought from loading points located in Assam's Dibrugarh, Guwahati and Bongaigaon.

At times of acute fuel scarcity, fuel is also brought to Malom depot from Numaligarh loading station.

Likewise, LPG is also brought to Sekmai bottling plant by bulk LPG TTs from Dibrugarh, Guwahati and Bongaigaon.

Fuel is transported to Imphal from different loading points located in Assam along Imphal-Dimapur highway and Imphal-Jiribam highway but it takes several days for a single trip.

Currently, fuel is being transported along Imphal-Jiribam highway but a single round trip takes around 10 days.

The TTs take around five days if they take Imphal-Dimapur highway, sources informed.

The loading points of Dibrugarh, Guwahati and Bongaigaon are quite far from Imphal.

That's why it takes several days for TTs to go there and come back with fuel.

Apart from being highly time-consuming, IOCL is compelled to incur extra transportation expenditure.

The situation is such that IOCL is staring at economic losses.

All these factors compel IOCL to explore loading points which are nearer to Imphal, said the sources.

The rail-fed oil depot being taken up by IOCL at Silchar as mega project would supply fuels to Assam's Barak Valley as well as the neighbouring States of Mizoram, Manipur and Tripura.

There is also a plan to set up buffer stock at the same depot for supplying fuel to ASEAN countries, said the sources.

Once the project is commissioned, the State's loading point for fuel would be Silchar which is much closer to Imphal as compared to Dibrugarh, Guwahati or Bongaigaon.

Once Silchar becomes the loading point, it would not take more than three days to go there and come back to Imphal with fuel.

The crude oil being refined at the refineries of Dibrugarh, Guwahati, Bongaigaon and Numaligarh are imported from abroad.

LPG is a compound of crude oil but only 40 per cent of the total LPG requirement of the North Eastern States are produced at the four refineries.

As such, the remaining 60 per cent is brought from Bihar and West Bengal through West Bengal's Habiya up to Guwahati.

LPG brought from Bihar and West Bengal is unloaded at Guwahati before it is distributed to the North Eastern States, said the sources.

However, when there is any problem on the highway passing through Habiya, LPG supply to the North Eastern States is affected.

At the same time, Manipur has its own problems about law and order, highways etc.

If the project of laying gas pipeline from Habiya to Silchar through Tripura is implemented, Silchar would become the State's loading point for LPG too which means scarcity or shortage of LPG in the State would be mitigated considerably, said the sources.

Meanwhile, it is reported that the rail-fed oil depot being constructed at Silchar would be commissioned by next year.

However, the project of gas pipeline would take some more time, the sources added.

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