(a)whether the Ministry of Railways is meeting the demand of wagons of oil companies in North East for Transportation of petroleum products in full;
(b)if not, the reasons therefor; and
(c)the steps taken/proposed to be taken by the Government to meet the demand of the oil companies ?
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS (SHRI R.VELU)
(a) Ministry of Railways makes every possible effort to meet the demand of wagons of Oil
companies in North East for Transportation of petroleum products, in line with their actual
requirement, keeping in view various limitations it is faced with in that region.
The average loading of petroleum products in tank wagons in year 2004-05 (April February) has increased up to 462 four wheeler wagon units per day as compared to 382 wagon units in the Financial year 2003-04. This marks an increase of approximately 21% in loading in the current year so far.
(b) Supply of tank wagons for loading of petroleum products gets affected by various factors like short registering of demand at certain locations, non-uniform registering of demand, law and order problems in North East Region, breaches on account of heavy monsoon, movement of essential commodities to all North Eastern States including Foodgrain for Public Distribution System(PDS).
(c) `Monthly Slate Meetings` are held between the members of Oil Industry and Indian Railways to assess the demand and provide tank wagons for evacuation of Petroleum products. The supply of wagons and loading is monitored very closely on a day to day basis. With
persistent efforts it has become possible to achieve the highest ever loading performance of 599 four wheeler wagon units per day in the month of February 2005. As a consequence, the projected demand of Industry for the month of March 2005 has come down from a level of
817 four wheeler wagon units in February 2005 to only 514 four wheeler wagon units per day.