Petrol shortage grips City

LAHORE
Shortage of petrol and diesel gripped the city following a cut in prices and a strike by tankers against the levy of tax.
The short supply of fuel to pumps became visible late Monday night, causing immense inconvenience for the masses. Long queues were seen at petrol pumps and CNG stations due to the unavailability of fuel.
Shortage of fuel peaked on Tuesday evening with the closure of many filling stations in the provincial metropolis. Except, PSO petrol pumps, most filling stations ran out of the supply by the evening.
Meanwhile, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, federal Minister for Petroleum, said due to the oil tankers' strike the supply of fuel was disturbed briefly. The issue now has been resolved, the situation has stabilised and all pumps should be open any time soon, he added.
On the other hand, a spokesman for the City District government said 6.5m litre petrol and 3.4m litre diesel would be supplied to Lahore. She added that 60 percent petrol and diesel out of to total supply had reached Lahore since morning. The remaining 40 percent will reach Lahore by midnight, she added. The total need of petrol and diesel in Lahore city is 2.3m and 1.7m respectively.
Meanwhile, hydel power stations owned and operated by Wapda delivered 4,308 million units of low-cost hydel electricity to the national grid in August 2015 compared to 4,232 million units generated during the corresponding period last year. As per Wapda spokesman, this generation registered an increase of 76 million units at a time when the country is in dire need of electricity. The increased generation has been achieved due to improved hydrological condition, and efficient operation and maintenance of hydel power stations.
The contribution of hydel generation to the national grid by Wapda is expected to increase in the days to come because of high water head available in Tarbela and Mangla reservoirs and enhanced water outflows from the dams on IRSA’s indent in accordance with the provinces’ water requirements for irrigation. According to the generation data of August 2015, maximum units of hydel electricity 146.403 million were delivered to the national grid on August 10, while minimum 129.527 million units were contributed on August 18.
It is worth mentioning that Wapda delivers about 32 billion units to the national grid every year on the average. Hydel is the cheapest, cleanest and environment-friendly source of electricity generation, which plays a pivotal role in stabilising the power tariff in the country. According to the data of per unit generation cost during July 2014-April 2015, it is Rs 2.76 for hydel in comparison to Rs 7.74 for gas, Rs 16.25 for residual furnace oil (RFO), Rs 18.81 for high speed diesel (HSD), Rs 12.56 for coal, Rs 5.59 for nuclear, Rs.12.83 for wind and Rs.10.89 for bagasse.