Kathmandu: Nepal Oil Corporation has started construction of the country’s second largest petroleum storage house.
The Gandaki Provincial Office of the Corporation will be the largest depot after Amalekhgunj, the storage house to be built at Gagangonda, Pokhara.
Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Lekhraj Bhatta laid the foundation stone of the depot with a storage capacity of 10 million liters of petroleum products on Thursday.
According to NOC, the construction of storage house in Pokhara has been started as the first project as per the policy of the government to build depots of fuel storage capacity for 90 days in each state. The corporation says that a new storage house will be built in the 77 ropani area of the current depot.
At present, the state has a storage facility for diesel for seven days and petrol for two days only. The corporation has stated that if the construction of the new storage house is completed, the storage demand of diesel will reach one month and the consumption of petrol will reach 12 days.
According to the Gandaki regional office depot of the corporation, 332,000 liters of diesel and 142,000 liters of petrol are sold in the state every day.
The corporation has stated that the project has been taken forward by stopping the process started by the state government to purchase land by spending Rs 2 billion for the construction of a new storage house in the state. The corporation claims that it has saved two billion rupees from the decision to build a warehouse on the old land.
The Institute of Engineering Studies Consultancy Service Pulchowk has conducted the technical study. The total construction cost of the storage house is said to be NRs 770 million. The project is targeted to be completed within two years.