October 4: With the start of the Dashain festival, consumption of petroleum products has increased suddenly. The consumption of diesel and petrol has increased by 75 per cent with the start of Dashain festival as compared to the normal days, according to Nepal Oil Corporation.    
Earlier, 2.2 million litres of petrol used to be consumed in a day. Now, the consumption of petrol has reached 3.5 litres a day.    
NOC Spokesperson Binitmani Upadhyay said 5.5 million litres of diesel is being consumed daily against 3.5 million litres.    
Long queue of the vehicles was seen at some fuel stations while people started leaving the Kathmandu Valley to celebrate Dashain.
Spokesperson Upadhyay shared that NOC depots would remain opened even in public holiday during Dashain in order to make smooth sale and distribution of petroleum products across the county during the festival.    
Meanwhile, the Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has said its all petrol pumps would be open during the Dashain holiday.    
The state-owned fuel utility informed through a recent notice that it will be operating its 13 fuel depots to ensure a smooth supply of petroleum products during Dashain.    
NOC Director Birendra Goit informed that the NOC depots would be open on October 2, 5 and 7 in Biratnagar of Province 1 and in Amalekhgunj of Madhes province while the depot would be operated on October 1, 2, 4 and 7 at Thankot of Bagmati province and at Pokhara of Gandaki province.    
Similarly, the NOC depots at Bhairahawa of Lumbini would be open on October 1,2,4,7 and 8, the depot at Surkhet of Karnali province would be open on October 2 and 7 while the depots at Dhangadhi of Sudurpaschim would be open on October 2, 3 and 7.    
Likewise, the depot at the NOC branch office Charali would be open on October 2 and 7 while the depots in Nepalgunj, Dhanusha, Birgunj, Dang and Dipayal would also be open until October 7.    
The petrol pumps would be open round the clock to prevent shortage of petroleum products in the market, NOC stated. -- RSS