In fuel-starved Nepal, filling tank is a full day’s job

KATHMANDU (AFP)


The three men standing by their cars as night fell peered into the little white taxi, and recognising the Nepali cab driver as a friend, hissed, “Need petrol? We know where you can get some.”

The driver slowed, and said he would return later for the few litres of black market petrol that would save him from losing an entire day queueing.

“I parked the truck in this line at 7:00 pm yesterday,” said food transporter Krishna Bahadur Shrestha, 40, who was number 56 in a queue for diesel.

“They will only give me 10 or 15 litres. I won’t be able to run my truck for even a full day on that.”

In recent months — despite a hike in government-set prices in June — the supply has shrunk even more as rising crude costs that India passes on to Nepal have further limited how much the landlocked Himalayan country can buy in cash.

But the Nepali government continues to subsidise pump prices for fear of widespread protests in the country, still navigating a two-year-old peace process that saw Maoist rebels lay down their arms after a decade of war.

AFP