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Journalism of Courage
Door-to-door delivery of diesel is set to expand significantly, with leading state-owned oil marketing companies (OMCs) Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) seeking applications from startups to provide this service. The three OMCs have called for expressions of interest (EoIs) from startups recognised by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) to apply for agreements for door-to-door delivery of diesel using mobile petrol pumps.
Industry sources told The Sunday Express that the government “nudged” the state-owned OMCs to restrict the eligibility to startups to boost entrepreneurship in the country. OMCs expect that agreements with startups will push the number of mobile petrol pumps in India to grow by four-five times to 1,000-1,500 pumps within a year from the estimated 200-300 pumps at present. IOC started door-to-door delivery of diesel in Pune in 2018. The three OMCs had planned to expand the size of their mobile diesel delivery fleet to 500 mobile petrol pumps across the country by FY20-end.
“There is an estimated latent demand of around 300-400 TKL (thousand kilolitre) per month for door to door delivery of diesel or around 5 per cent of the total demand,” said an official at a major OMC. Door-to-door diesel delivery will benefit users of stationary equipment like generator sets, mobile towers, users of earth moving equipment and heavy machinery.
