Fuel crisis likely to hit some districts in Karnataka

The acute shortage of petrol and diesel in districts of north Karnataka, including Belagavi and Uttara Kannada districts haunts both customers and petrol/diesel stations, even as the Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited have restored fuel supply last week.

Sources at the petroleum company told The Hindu on Monday that the shortage of automobile fuel for a fortnight was due to the sudden shut down of three major refineries, including the one at Jamnagar in Gujarat and the MRPL.

The shortage led to panic-buying and long queues in almost all the petrol/diesel stations which supplied fuel in small quantities to manage with the available stocks. The situation turned from bad to worse in Belagavi for the past three-four days.

As the present shortage was “not manageable”, there may be some improvement in the days to come, the source confirmed.