New Delhi: The government’s previous attempt at starting home delivery of petrol and diesel may have failed before it could even take-off, but petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Wednesday appeared upbeat that this time would be different.
Speaking at the inaugural session of India Mobile Congress in the capital, Pradhan said the government could soon leverage the advancements in the telecom and IT sector to start home delivery of fuel. Customers could use e-commerce platforms for placing orders, the minister said.
In a series of tweets, Pradhan said that the revolution in the telecom sector has impacted how business is done in all sectors, and it has been for the benefit of consumers. He said the delivery option would cut queues at fuel stations and increase convenience. About 35 crore people go to fuel stations every day. Annually, Rs 2,500 crore worth of transactions take place at fuel stations.
But this is not the first time that Pradhan has presented his vision of fuel being delivered at the doorstep of people, just like milk or newspapers.
In April this year, he had said the government would soon bring petrol and diesel on an e-commerce portal. He had said the idea is to build “mini and mobile petrol pumps” that would be more convenient for people. Explaining how it would work, he said people would place order online and would be delivered fuel by the mini pumps when it would suit them.
The Petroleum and Safety Organisation, however, had poured cold water on the plan and disallowed home delivery, citing safety reasons. It had termed the act of supplying fuel in such a manner as illegal and fraught with danger to public and property.
The statutory body had also said it would not give any company the licence for this. In a notification released by PESO on June 22, it had said, “This is not approved by the government, PESO, or ministry of petroleum and natural gas.”
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