PESHAWAR: Good transporters have expressed serious concern over the fire incident near Taru Jabba oil depot in Nowshera and demanded of the federal government to compensate the transporters and ensure that the tankers will not wait in long lines for delivery of oil for over 24 hours.

Talking to mediapersons here on Thursday, All Pakistan Oil Tankers Contractors Association president Abid Afridi held Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra), oil marketing companies and the ministry of petroleum for the incident wherein 49 oil tankers were gutted a few days ago.

“We have time and again requested the relevant officials for taking appropriate steps to ensure early delivery of the fuel at the depot so that the tankers will not queue up for their turn for about two to three weeks,” he said.

The transporter said the main cause of the incident was the slow delivery of fuel at the depot. He said the transporters had no other option, but to line up the vehicles for their turn.

He said it was a longstanding demand of the oil tanker owners because they had to face problems due to the delay in delivery.

“The transporters bought the tankers on loans and installments and they have no other source of income to bear the huge losses due to burning of their vehicles,” Mr Afridi said and warned that owners of oil tankers would announce a wheel-jam strike in case they were not compensated immediately.

Published in Dawn,May 6th, 2022