LAHORE, Dec 28: Motorcyclists and other road users completely dependent on petrol or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) are being forced off the road as the fuel crisis intensifies to unprecedented levels.

Traffic wardens Dawn spoke to in Gulberg, Cantt and along the Canal said that number of motorcycles has dropped by up to 50 per cent. Motorcycle and rickshaw users accounted for over 870,000 vehicles in the city in 2007 according to statistics kept by the Punjab Environment Protection Agency.

Some users are turning to the black market to meet their needs, while others are forced to walk for miles to get from A to B.

While most car-users have the option of switching over to compressed natural gas (CNG), motorcyclists do not have that luxury. M Bilal, who was carrying his wife and son on his motorcycle on Main Boulevard said: “I haven’t found any fuel for the last two days. If it continues, I will have no option but to park my motorcycle at home.”

Others, such as Nazar Abbas, driver of a two-stroke rickshaw stuck near RA Bazaar, Cantonment, are also suffering from not being able to find LPG. He said that the price of a kilo of LPG had increased from Rs58 to Rs90 or even more than Rs100 in many cases. He was forced to stand in long queues, and sometimes would be turned away without any fuel.

Fayyaz, a motorcycle-rickshaw driver, said that some drivers had converted their vehicles to run on CNG while others were able to procure petrol from black market at Rs80 per litre. Adulterated petrol is available in open drums at various points including Do Moriya Pull.

A motorcyclist Dawn spoke to said that a handful of Lahore’s 600 filling stations were still selling petrol and these were known by word-of-mouth, often at inflated prices using improperly calibrated metres. “If the government has time and resources to enforce the one-dish rule, why can’t they prevent pumps from cheating customers?” he said.

Asif, a Punjab University student who owns a bike, said he was asking for lifts from friends with cars and sometimes using the bus as an alternative. Families have been spotted walking for miles decked out in wedding clothes.

Malik Fahim of the Petroleum Dealers Association said that 80 per cent of city’s 600 pumps were not selling petrol. He added situation was likely to continue till the first week of next year, when crude oil purchased after the reduction in oil prices would arrive.