Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has made arrangements for the smooth distribution of fuel during the public holidays of Dashain festival.

According to Nepal Oil Corporation, the depots under the regional and branch office will remain open on rotation basis to ensure the smooth supply of fuel during the festival across the country.

“We have managed to distribute fuel on public holidays of Dashain to ensure smooth supply of fuel during the festival period,” said Purna Prasad Rijal, spokesperson of the NOC.

According to NOC, Thankot depot of Bagmati Provincial Office will be opened for three days on Thursday, Friday and Monday during the holiday.

Similarly, Dhangadhi depot of Sudurpashchim Provincial Office will be opened for three days on Thursday, Sunday and Monday.

Similarly, depots of Biratnagar, Amlekhgunj, Pokhara, Bhairahawa, Surkhet, Dhanusha, Birganj and Chaarali will be opened for two days during the holidays.

Similarly, the fuel depot of Dang will be opened one day and the depots of Nepalgunj and Dipayal will be opened as per requirement.

The Corporation has also designated a contact person for each depot for the convenience of petroleum businessmen and transporters when the respective offices are closed.

The petroleum products can be bought from the depot at the specified time by contacting that person, he said.

He said that the NOC has instructed to deploy the employees in the concerned depots on the holidays to supply fuel.

“We have already requested the dealers to collect fuel from the depots to meet the demand during the holidays. We are ready to deliver fuel to the dealers as per their demand,” he said.

According to Rijal, fuel consumption has been increasing over the last few days after growing movement of vehicles.

“The fuel consumption has increased marginally for the last few days due to increased vehicle movement on the road with the beginning of the festival,” he said.

He said that the demand for petroleum products, especially diesel and petrol, could not increase so far this year’s Dashain in line with the past years as movement of vehicles from Kathmandu Valley to destinations outside is comparatively lower this year because of damaged roads.

He, however, said that demand for aviation fuel doubled for the past four days compared to the normal demand.

Daily demand for aviation fuel has reached 800 KL at present while it was limited at 400 KL, he said.

He said that the demand for aviation fuel increased due to increased flights as airlines companies increased flights after increased passenger flow.

Due to damaged roads in many places caused by the recent rains, flow of air passengers has increased significantly.

He assured that there will be no scarcity of petroleum products including cooking gas during the festival as the Corporation has sufficient stock of fuel to meet the demand.