CHENNAI: Petrol bunks in the city have been overwhelmed by panic-stricken motorists since Wednesday night, triggered by rumours of a fuel shortage.
Such was the scale of panic purchase that a few of them had to shut down after running out of stock, which, ironically, only helped to fuel the fear.
The rush comes close on the heels of a shortage of domestic LPG cylinders, which has already left the residents on edge.
From late Wednesday evening, large crowds began thronging petrol stations, with regular office-goers and other motorists lining up for extended periods to refuel their vehicles.
"Usually, I wait less than two minutes at the fuel station. Now, I have been waiting for over ten minutes. This is eating into my time, and I will definitely be late for the office today," said M Karthick of Saidapet, who was refuelling his bike at the Bharat Petroleum station in Velachery.
"Due to the Israel-Iran conflict, a shortage could occur at any time. Because of that, I decided to get a full tank, as a precaution," said A Rajan, another customer filling his car.
"We usually sell between 13,000 and 16,000 litres of petrol per day. However, on Wednesday, sales rose to 26,000 litres. Similarly, our diesel sales also saw a significant spike to 13,000 litres from 7,000 litres," said the pump manager.
Night shift workers there described the past few hours as exhausting. "People have been swarming the bunk. Most customers are filling their tanks to the brim as a precaution to face a potential shortage," one worker told reporters.
In Vadapalani, the Hindustan Petroleum bunk on Arcot Road shut down after 8.30 am. "As we are yet to receive the stock, we opened at 6.30 am and closed after two hours after it got over,” said a staff.