Pune Petrol Stations To Stay Open On Sundays

April 21, 2017

The All India Petrol Dealers’ Association said that no petrol pump will remain shut every Sunday from May 14 and this makes the city’s stand firm on the Prime Minister’s appeal to conserve fuel. “The Prime Minister in his Mann Ki Baat address was appealing to the people of India for a social cause and not to petrol pump owners to shut down petrol pumps. It will cause a huge inconvenience to people if this happens”.

Shutting down petrol pumps for a day is synonymous to shutting down India for a day,” says Sagar Rukari, Vice President, Petrol Dealers’ Association, Pune.

Pune has 550 petrol pump outlets out of which 128 outlets are in the city and the rest are outside. Rukaria also adds that shutting down petrol pumps on Sundays will heighten the problems for citizens as Pune’s local transport infrastructure is poor, “There are bad transport facilities in Pune and shutting down all the petrol pumps will increase people’s problems. The PM would never want that.

We lack this infrastructure. If someone wants to go to Hinjewadi on a Sunday, then how will they go? There is no metro or local here. Pune is different.

In Mumbai, at least the public can rely on the metro and locals. The PM’s appeal was mainly to the people. A complete shutdown is not an option.”

Speaking of the major confusion among petrol pumps in the city, a petrol pump owner, on the condition of anonymity says, “We stand by the decisions made by All India Petrol Dealers’ Association and Petrol Dealers’ Association. Petrol is an essential commodity and shutting down petrol pumps on Sunday would cause a huge standstill in the city. There is a big confusion on what the Prime Minister exactly meant in his address to the people. But if petrol pumps had to shut down, it wouldn’t affect PMPML buses as they fill fuel from different depots. Private transport buses generally fill fuel from the highways. For smaller vehicles like scooters and rickshaws, the fuel intake is less which means that they’d have to fuel up more often. A lot of people actually thought that petrol pumps were shutting down this Sunday instead of May 14.”

Rashid Sheikh, an auto rickshaw driver says that if petrol pumps shut down then it will affect the business of rickshaw drivers too, “If the petrol pumps are shut then the business on Sundays will be slow as no one will want to venture out of their households.

If the government really wants to conserve fuel, then they need to establish proper control over traffic. The police are not monitoring the roads enough. We need strict rules, but shutting down petrol pumps is definitely not the solution.”