Members of the Chennai and Asanur Petroleum Tanker Lorry Owners Welfare on Tuesday stepped up their protest demanding further extension of transport tender period by refusing to lift aviation turbine fuel (ATF) from Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd.’s (BPCL) terminal at Tondiarpet.
The ATF is meant for supply to various airlines at the Chennai airport. Around 3 lakh litres of ATF is supplied by road daily to the airport by 10 tanker lorries attached to BPCL’s facility. Company sources, however, said that Indian Oil Corporation Ltd., which has a pipeline running to Meenambakkam will ensure uninterrupted supplies to the airlines.
For two days now, the tankers had stopped supply of petrol and diesel to BPCL retail outlets. Around 450 tanker lorries attached to the company’s Karur terminal too have said they would join in the protest and stop supplies to retail outlets in 10 districts including Krishnagiri, Dharmapuri, Salem, Nagapattinam and Karaikal From Wednesday,
Sources in BPCL said that the rate being provided in the new tender was much higher than the all India average of ₹2.80/kilometre/kilo litre.
“Our rate is ₹2.09/km/KL. Only a few tanker owners are involved in this strike and they are standing in the way of other tanker operators from participating in the fresh tender. They have struck work several times without even informing us and letting outlets go dry once. This time, so far there have not been any dry outs,” a source said on condition of anonymity, while adding that the company will get at least 800 applications for transporting fuel. Many have already converted their vehicles to suit our specifications and even recruited drivers.
“They are mailing us requesting us not to further extend the transport tenders,” the source added.
Published – May 27, 2025 09:53 pm IST
