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• The Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) is doing its best to ensure that customers have a hassle-free time from Christmas tomorrow to New Year and then Magh Bihu in January.IOC senior area manager, Tinsukia, Saurabh Chaliha, told this correspondent today that plans were in place to meet the extra requirement during the festivities.He said local bandh calls by some students’ organisations in Upper Assam had stopped production for nearly six days last month.Accordingly, steps were being taken to increase the production at two plants — Gopinari near Digboi in Tinsukia district and Duliajan in Dibrugarh district.
• From these two plants, the corporation supplies LPG to all five Upper Assam districts, parts of Karbi Anglong and Nagaon, all 11 districts of Nagaland and eastern Arunachal Pradesh.Chaliha said normally the demand of LPG is between 5,700 metric tonnes and 5,800 metric tonnes per month in these areas.Nearly 1,500 truckloads, each carrying 305 LGP cylinders, come out of the two plants every month.He said during the festivals, LPG requirement goes up and the company tries to augment production.However, in recent years, statewide and local bandhs called by student organisations and communities have hampered production.
• According to the corporation’s estimate, in the next two months, the LPG requirement will be nearly 6,000 metric tonnes per month and a plan has been made to meet the extra demand.Chaliha said normally the plant runs for eight hours a day However, when extra LPG is required, the plant runs for extra hours and sometimes on Sundays and other government holidays as well.He said the company was reviewing the situation on a weekly basis according to the orders received from dealers.
• “We hope there will be no major shortage of LPG cylinders in the coming days,” the official said.The vice-president of North-East Indane Distributors’ Association, Roman Bordoloi, welcomed the IOC’s initiative to prevent any scarcity.Bordoloi, who owns an IOC LPG cylinder dealership here, said it becomes “very difficult” to handle the situation when customers have to go back home empty-handed.He said unscrupulous elements try to take advantage of the shortage during festivities by hoarding and selling LPG cylinders at high prices.He said, so far, the supply of LPG was regular and there was no backlog,The issue of delay in delivering LPG cylinders and sale of the cylinders in black at a much higher price had figured in the state Assembly session, which concluded on Friday.Several members raised the matter and sought a statement from the government.

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