Aizol TIMES – So near, yet so far…. says Supplies director
Aizawl Sept 12: The long queues before petrol pumps over the last two days in Aizawl have disappeared today not because oil has arrived, but because petrol pumps have become dry.
Speaking about the oil crisis, Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs director TBC Rozara today said the crisis had come up not because the state did not have enough oil stock, but because tankers cannot reach the state capital because of a landslide blocking the national highway on the city’s periphery locality of Rangvamual.
“We have about five trucks carrying loaded cooking gas cylinders and about 20 tank lorries carrying oil which are stuck at Rangvamual because a big landslide has blocked the national highway there. We are in a situation where we have no option but to say ‘so near, yet so far away,’†Rozara, an IRS officer who is also the Supplies department’s Secretary, said.
He said while the gas crisis is not new and has been going on after the July 18 incident of Dholai which made trucks driven by non-Mizo drivers reluctant to enter the state, the oil crisis currently in place is because of the recent heavy rains the region witnessed this year.
Knowing how easy the problem could escalate, the Supplies department had rationed the available petrol and diesel in the state capital limiting light vehicles such as cars and four-wheel drives like Gypsies to 10 litres of petrol and bikes to 5 litres of petrol. However, the replenishment of these oils could not be made because the trucks carrying them simply could not make it inside the state capital. Rozara said the Border Roads Organization is working non-stop to clear the national highway and that the road is expected to be cleared any time.
The state PWD has also chipped in to help the BRO in clearing the road by lending its road clearing machines at the blockade side. Said PWD chief engineer Vanlalduhsaka: “Although the national highway is not under our purview, we have lent our machines to clear the road because of the oil and gas crisis which could worsen if the road remains blocked.â€
Apart from the landslide at Rangvamual just six to eight kilometers from the main Aizawl area, a landslip has caused the road to sink at Hunthar locality, the entrance to main Aizawl causing further problems for vehicles to enter the state capital. According to PWD officials, the sinking has not stopped because vehicles are allowed to ply on the road to bring essential goods to the state capital.
Meanwhile, landslides and landslips all over the state have caused further problems for essential commodities to reach the people in remote rural areas. The only good news is that the state has enough rice stocked to last for a month. Rozara said at least one month’s supply of rice has been stocked all over the state and that his department was using horses to carry the rice to reach the remote villages which have been cut off by landslides.
“If bad comes to worse, we can airlift rice to the remote villages because the state government has given us permission for the use of helicopters to carry rice to the rural areas,†he said.
Asked about the cooking gas crisis, he said nothing can be done at the moment because of floods in the plains area which has prevented trucks carrying LPG come into the state. He, however, assured that the crisis would soon end because authorities in the LPG area have agreed to inundate Mizoram with cooking gas, both pre-filled and by raw LPG truck carriers for the Mualkhang bottling plant.
He pointed out that while this bottling plant has a capacity to fill only 1200 cylinders a day at present, plans have been drawn up to double the capacity and that work on this would soon be commenced.
