Nepal may airlift fuel to ease crisis
Kathmandu: As the fuel crisis worsens in Nepal due to a blockade of trade from India, the government is now mulling airlifting fuel either from Bangladesh or Malaysia and building a petroleum storage plant near its border with China.
Kathmandu, Oct. 8: Nepal is mulling airlifting fuel either from Bangladesh or Malaysia and may build a petroleum storage plant near its border with China, as the fuel crisis deepened due to continued blockade of land trade points with India amid protests over the new Constitution.
Nepal Oil Corporation has been tasked to prepare alternative plans for fuel import by the commerce ministry, following the blockade, the Kathmandu Post reported. In its proposal, the state- owned enterprise has drawn short and long term plans for fuel import. The NOC has planned to import fuel either from Bangladesh or Malaysia as short term solution. "The NOC meeting on Wednesday has considered air- lifting fuel as an option for now. However, we are yet to reach to any conclusion," said an NOC source told the paper.
In the long term plan, the NOC has recommended for importing fuel from China and sending a technical team there for a feasibility study. The corporation has also suggested the government to construct a petroleum storage plant in the NepalChina border area. In the proposal, the NOC has sought government's
Nepal Oil Corporation has been tasked to prepare alternative plans for fuel import by the commerce ministry, following the blockade, the Kathmandu Post reported
permission to import petroleum products without bidding process. The commerce ministry had written to the NOC last week to work on the possibility of importing petroleum products through alternative means, after the Indian Oil Corporation “unilaterally started restriction on fuel supply to Nepal,” the paper said. In a veiled attack on India, Nepal’s Maoist chief Prachanda on Thursday accused foreign and national “agents,” besides feudals, of trying to destabilise the country by breaking communal harmony in the Madhesi- dominated Terai region by playing the Constitution card. The 60- year- old former PM claimed that the feudals as well as foreign and national agents have hijacked the agenda of the Maoist party in Terai region in a bid to make the party weaker in the southern plains.