Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) said it had requested Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) to install security locking systems on oil tankers soon. 

IOC has instructed its depots located at seven locations close to the Nepal border to fit security locks on Nepali tankers. 

The seven IOC depots are Panitanki, Barauni, Raxaul, Betalpur, Mungalsharayah, Gonda and Sahajahanpur, according to NOC. 

The state-owned oil monopoly has made it mandatory for all oil tankers to have security locking systems installed by December-end 

“With IOC speeding up procurement of locking systems for Nepali tankers, we have planned to have them installed on many tankers in the first stage,” said NOC Spokesperson Birendra Kumar Goit.

The new security locking system is a specially designed safety measure that is being implemented by IOC in India. Installing the locking system on fuel tankers is expected to control oil theft and leakage as the locks can only be opened at NOC and IOC depots.

Goit said they had been using the IOC locking system on Nepali tankers to make it compatible with that being used by IOC in India. 

As per NOC, the master keys to the security locks are held by depots of NOC and IOC. 

After refilling at an IOC depot, officials there put the lock on the oil tankers and send them to an NOC depot. 

After importing the fuel, officials of the NOC depot unlock the tankers before distributing the gasoline to refilling stations. 

NOC has been using 1,700 tankers to import fuel from India. According to the Nepal Petroleum Transport Entrepreneurs’ Association, they have installed security locks on 500 tankers. 

“Among them, 400 are newly purchased tankers while 100 are old ones,” said Khageshwor Bohara, president of the association. 

IOC is providing the security locking system to Nepali tankers free of cost. However, tankers entrepreneurs need to make technical arrangements to install it. 

According to NOC, the entrepreneurs have to make the assessing rod, coverage, emergency vault and delivery points themselves in order to install the locking system. 

Bohara said these things cost around IRs100,000 per tanker.