NEW DELHI: State-run fuel retailers operated their LPG bottling plants at full steam on Monday, Mahavir Jayanti, and will do so on Good Friday – both gazetted national holidays when units normally remain shut – to avoid build-up of backlog as they meet additional demand for supplying three free refills to eight crore poor households from this month.
Data shows IndianOil, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum together operated 192 out of their 196 bottling plants across the country on Ram Navami to roll out 52 lakh cylinders, or nearly 87% of the current daily deliveries to consumers.
The decision to operate the plants on holidays came in the wake of oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan asking the companies to ensure 100% delivery of free cylinders to the poor households without affecting deliveries to general consumers, who are consuming 15% more fuel as families remain confined to their homes due to the lockdown.
The uninterrupted services by the state-run oil companies on Wednesday drew praise from Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, prompting Pradhan to thank him through a tweet and expressing solidarity with the people of Kerala in their fight against coronavirus.
