Auto drivers peeved

Auto drivers peeved
Want More LPG Stations
The Times of India

Bangalore: Autorickshaw drivers in Bangalore are up in arms. For the 75,000-odd population of the yellowhooded vehicles, th ere are merely 27 gas filling stations.
“Whenever I’ve to fill fuel, it’s a pain to go all the way to remote filling stations. We end up wasting a lot of fuel and incur losses of at least Rs 50 for each trip,” said Shankar N, a rickshaw driver.
“There should be a law that all petrol bunks must have an LPG filling station as well. After all, even cars are converting to LPG nowadays,” Auto Rickshaw Drivers Union (ARDU) representative Jagannath Rao told The Times of India.
But transport commissioner M C Narayana Gowda says that this cannot be made mandatory. “We cannot force the petrol bunks. We are planning to hold a meeting with dealers to encourage them to include LPG station as well. We are liberal with permits,” he said.
Petrol bunk owners are not gung-ho about the idea. “We have to have a minimum area of 80,000 square feet. And you cannot have a gas filling centre in a residential area or near any educational institution. How can we adhere to these norms if we’re an established business with limited area?” said a petrol bunk owner on Kasturba Road.
There’s more — NOCs must also be issued by the explosive department. “Those aren’t easy to get. They are very stringent and land availability, which is one of the basic criteria, itself is a huge issue,” said an employee from a petroleum company on condition of anonymity. DCP Traffic (east) M A Saleem says the main problem is that there are only two filling stations in central Bangalore. “There’s one on Residency Road and another near the Hosur Road-Richmond Road crossing. A couple more around M G Road should solve the problem.”
Gowda says the controversy is merely a publicity stunt. “How about discussing the 10,000-odd autorickshaws that still haven’t been converted to LPG? There are enough filling stations to take on the current number of autorickshaws.”