Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) said gasoline stations in the Kathmandu Valley would start distributing fuel regularly from Saturday.

The state-owned monopoly had originally announced that motorists would be able to buy fuel without hassles from Friday, but it posted a notice on its website instructing gas stations to distribute fuel only from Saturday morning, creating confusion among them.

“As we were getting ready to dispatch fuel to the petrol pumps, the notice was posted on our website. Customers will get fuel regularly from Saturday,” said Mukunda Ghimire, director of NOC.

The initial announcement had led to hordes of motorists rushing to queue up in front of gasoline stations. They had to return empty-handed and frustrated after staying in line for hours.  

The Supply Ministry had decided to normalise distribution from Friday on improvements in the fuel supply after India lifted the unofficial trade embargo. The ministry also said that it would be scrapping the quota system that the government had put in place during the fuel crisis.

However, almost no private petrol pump distributed fuel on Friday. Ghimire said that they would get gasoline on Friday which would allow them to starting selling it from Saturday.

Meanwhile, NOC has assigned 67 petrol pumps in the valley to distribute gasoline on Saturday. They will be getting 350 kiloliters of petrol and 450 kiloliters of diesel among them. The corporation said that gasoline would be rationed to 5 litres per two-wheeler and 15 litres per four-wheeler.