Top officials of the three oil companies -- Indian Oil Corporation, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum – will meet transporters in Mumbai on June 22 to find a solution on the bulk LPG transportation across the country.

The meeting comes following a boycott by majority of transporters in South, East and North in the tender issued by the oil companies for bulk LPG transportation across the country.

A high level meeting held in Mumbai today among the officials of the industry (oil companies) decided to have another round of discussion with transporters to solve the ongoing problem, according to a company official who did not wish to be identified.

The transporters are protesting against the reduction in weigh tolerance level to 40 kg from the existing 100 kg between the loading and unloading points. Nearly 12,000 vehicles are required to transport bulk LPG from various loading centres to bottling plants. The tender is collectively worth nearly Rs 6,500 crore, according to truck industry sources in Namakkal.

Participation in the tender closed at 11 am. The tender documents were opened at 3 pm with transporters from the West alone participating. Three transporters participated in the East and four in the North.

“The clause on weigh tolerance were included based on Comptroller Auditor General of India report and will remain the same. We cannot cancel the tender but at the same time need to find a way out and convince the transporters to supply the vehicles. All this will be discussed at the forthcoming meeting,” he said.

Mr N.R. Karthik, Secretary, Southern Region Bulk LPG Transport Owners Association, Namakkal, the hub for truck industry in the south, confirmed the invitation to attend the Mumbai meeting. “We will go and listen to them before taking any decision,” he told Business Line.

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