Aurangabad (Maharashtra), May 26 (IANS) The acute shortage of petrol in the city since last week reached a flash-point Monday with the only petrol vend left with some fuel stock bearing the brunt of people’s wrath. Harried consumers, queuing up in front of the API Corner petrol pump, ran out of patience when they didn’t get petrol at the end of a two-hour wait, and some of them attempted to ransack the petrol pump.

The owner of the outlet, however, pacified them with an assurance that he could meet their immediate requirement and would give them more fuel later in the day, after receiving fresh supplies.

The crunch came last week when the petrol and diesel supply to nearly 40 vends in and around the city, from the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation’s (HPCL) Panewadi depot in Manmad (some 150 km from here), came to a halt, additional collector D.M. Muglikar told IANS.

The supplies were disrupted because the Manmad Municipal Council sealed the HPCL depot for non-payment of dues, he said.

“Though the seal was removed Friday and the supply was resumed, it was much less than the city’s daily requirement of 150 kilolitres as the supplies to the Panewadi depot from the Bombay refinery was curtailed owing to an overall fuel shortage,” Muglikar explained.

“Panewadi depot sends supplies to 12 districts, so each one has to wait for its turn,” Muglikar said, adding that other supplies arranged from Loni in Ahmednagar district also were inadequate.

The HPCL depot also supplies petrol to the outlets belonging to the Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) and Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) as the pipeline from Bombay refinery to Panewadi (220 km from Mumbai) belongs to HPCL, Muglikar informed newspersons.

“The situation is expected to ease by late (Monday) evening as tankers are already on way to Aurangabad from Panewadi,” the official said.

The fuel shortage has also hit Nanded and Latur in Marathwada, Nashik in western Maharashtra and Buldhana in Vidarbha besides some other cities, a source said.