MUZAFFARGARH, Jan 22: A four-kilometre long line of oil tankers on Muzaffargarh-Mahmoodkot Road poses a great threat to the public besides causing traffic jams, Dawn has learnt.

Oil tanker drivers park their vehicles along the road to wait for their turn to supply furnace oil to the Muzaffargarh Thermal Power Station.

These oil tankers delay traffic flow and increase travelling time. Many wagons and buses that used to ply on the road now take other route. Those who dare to take the road experience longer traffic jams.

“I leave my house at 7am to reach my office in Muzaffargarh that opens at 8:30,” Syed Farhat Abbas from Mahmoodkot said. He said he reached Muzaffargarh after passing through a miserable condition every day because of the oil tankers.

The scarcity of public transport has created problems for students and workers who have to travel to Muzaffargarh.

“I missed my interview for teacher educator in Nov 2006 because I could not reach the interview venue in time,” said Najamul Hassan from Budh village. He said that he had been stuck near the power station due to unmanaged parking of the tankers.

On Jan 17, an oil tanker while overtaking another fell off the road spilling 44,000 litre of furnace oil there. The oil was lying there emitting pollutants and could catch fire any time.

Many drivers leave their vehicles unattended as one oil tanker gets its turn to unload the oil after five days.

Tanker cleaner Khaliq said that his tanker had arrived in Muzaffargarh on Tuesday night and would unload the supply on Saturday. As there are no proper lodging arrangements for drivers there, drivers leave their vehicles to sleep in a nearby hotel. This practice can cause any emergency as if one tanker catches fire and explodes, other vehicles standing by it will also come under the fire.

Drivers sipping tea at the hotel told Dawn they were facing hard times because of a lack of lodging arrangements. They demanded the power station management arrange a parking lot for oil tankers.

Zahoor Bukhush, an oil tanker driver, said he supplied furnace and diesel oil to the power station from Karachi twice a month.

He said that from Karachi to Panjnad in Alipur, all the toll tax collectors did not give him any receipt of toll tax and also overcharged him. He said all the drivers had to spend five horrible days outside the power station to deliver the supply.

When Deputy Superintendent of Traffic Police Akram Niazi was approached for comments, he said the shortage of staff could not allow him to deploy a constable on Muzaffargarh-Mahmoodkot Road to manage the traffic. He said the power station management should take responsibility for a smooth flow of traffic.

He said that no policeman was ready to be deployed on the road because these oil tanker drivers were “rude and thugs”.

“If any policeman takes action against any one, all of them attack the policeman and beat him,” he said.

Mr Niazi said it was a crime to park an oil tanker along roadside. When asked why the department had not taken any action against these hundreds of parked oil tankers outside the power station, he said that WAPDA should take action against these oil tankers.

Thermal Power chief security officer Maj Ishfaq (retired) was not available for comments.