Mizoram To Have Normal Gas Supply By Mid-June

Aizawl, May 21 : Mizoram will hopefully have normal gas supply by the middle of June, IOC officials said here today. Reiterating that the gas crisis is a national phenomenon, the IOC officials said that Mizoram is one of the least affected states.

While the shortfall in northern region as of May 3 came to 10828 metric tonnes; it was 6780 metric tonnes in western region, 36313 metric tonnes in southern region and 11677 metric tonnes in eastern region, they said.

"While the backlog in Assam was 5905 metric tonnes, it is 500 metric tonnes in Mizoram," an IOC official said during a meeting with Mizoram's food, civil supplies & consumer affairs minister H Rohluna at the latter's office. Shortage of LPG supply in the international market has bad affected India, they said.

Saudi Arabia's heavy reduction in its gas supply was said to be the major cause of the kitchen fuel's shortage.

India produces about six lakh metric tonnes of LPG against its requirement of seven lakh metric tonnes. The other factors behind the LPG shortage in Mizoram were the recent technical failures and fire that disrupted four oil refineries in the Northeast - Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL), Digboi Refinery, OIL Refinery Duliajan and Guwahati Refinery. NRL that produces 4000 metric tonnes of bulk LPG was closed from April 7 due to a fire incident. It is expected to reopen from June 15. The shortfall in bulk supply to Haldia port in West Bengal was also another factor. Rohluna requested the IOC officials to increase its allocation to Mizoram from 1650 metric tonnes to at least 2000 metric tonnes.

He said that due to the nation-wide shortage, IOC allocated only 1240 metric tonnes to Mizoram during April. Mizoram received 1698 metric tonnes in February and 1873 metric tonnes in March. The IOC officials promised to consider Mizoram's proposal to transfer LPG stock from Borkhola bottling plant in Assam to Mualkhang bottling plant near Aizawl to curb gas tampering on the road.

The IOC officials also granted transfer of consumer cards to 88 consumers in Khamrang village and several others in Aizawl who wanted to shift to a new distributor in Seling. Upgradation of Mualkhang gas bottling plant was also discussed during the meeting. From the IOC, A Panda, (executive director, Assam Oil Division), P Dey, (general manager, North East Integrated State Office), A C Sharma (deputy general manager, LPG) and M K K Peggoo (SDRSM, Silchar) attended the meeting.