BENGALURU: The supply crunch of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) for auto rickshaws in Bengaluru in the past two days appeared to ease on Friday. Panic subsided after IndianOil Corporation Limited’s (IOCL) announcement late Thursday night that auto LPG supplies would be scaled up in Karnataka to tackle the rising demand.
In a press release, IOCL mentioned that the decision comes in light of the “closure or partial shutdown of several private auto LPG outlets in Bengaluru and other parts of the state”. Over the past few days, multiple outlets were out of service, with long queues of autorickshaws at the remaining few with LPG stock.
Bowring Service Station, a supplier of IndianOil, ran out of auto LPG supply on Thursday, following a massive upsurge in demand on Wednesday. On Friday, a station in-charge said fresh supply had arrived in the morning, and got depleted around noon. “More auto LPG supply is scheduled to arrive earliest by tomorrow (Saturday) morning,” he added.
“IndianOil is currently meeting the fuel requirements of auto rickshaws and LPG-driven cars through its network of 55 Auto LPG Dispensing Stations (ALDS) spread across Karnataka. The average daily sales at IndianOil’s ALDS in Karnataka has risen sharply to 59.53 tonnes, compared to the previous three-month average of 43.4 tonnes, reflecting a significant increase in consumer demand,” IOCL said in a statement.
Meanwhile, aggregator platforms claimed that while service had been hit, it had not entirely capitulated. “Currently, LPG-powered autos make up around 30 per cent of our active auto captain base, and contribute to 27-30 per cent of total auto rides.
Since earlier this year, we have observed a limited churn of approximately 2 per cent within this segment, primarily driven by fuel availability challenges.
This has resulted in a marginal impact of about 1.5 per cent on overall monthly orders. While the overall disruption remains contained at this stage, the situation is directly affecting the daily earnings and operating consistency of LPG-dependent auto captains,” a spokesperson from Rapido said.