Motorists Face Trouble As Rainwater Mixes With Fuel In Bunk Tanks

At a petrol bunk in Rajamahendravaram, located next to the national highway at Bommuru in East Godavari, a pump worker was seen filling buckets with water flowing through the fuel dispenser in the early hours of the day. He said this was a regular practice during the rainy season. Water-contaminated fuel might otherwise get filled in the tank of vehicles, he said.

“As the water has more density than fuel, it gets deposited in the tank bed. When the fuel dispenser pump sucks fuel from the tank, water comes out initially. If the worker fails to eject this deposit, the water may get pumped into the vehicles’ fuel tanks,” a source said.

There were similar complaints from Nellore and other parts of AP, where some motorists even faced situations of their vehicle tanks being filled with water instead of fuel. They got agitated and forced the petrol bunk authorities to get their vehicle repaired.

In Yanam, a petrol bunk owner who found water in the underground fuel tank ejected the fuel worth ₹8 lakh to clean the tank.

Petroleum dealers allege that the oil marketing companies are responsible for regular maintenance of underground fuel tanks. “In cases of some fuel tanks that are fully automated with a lot of wires connected, we are not supposed to touch the tank,” they said.

They further said that if a fault occurred in the connectivity of wires or there is no proper plugging and sealing to the fuel tank, water either from the rainfall or groundwater enters the fuel tank.

A petroleum trader said, “Though the engineering teams of oil marketing companies are supposed to attend to regular maintenance of underground fuel tanks, they hardly attend to it. This causes trouble to us and to the motorists. We have to bear the expenses to carry out repair to the damaged vehicles and also to the fuel dispensing equipment if and when water gets into the tank.”

However, OMCs say it is mandatory on the part of every petrol bunk to check the underground fuel tank with a dip rod that’s having water finding paste in green colour. If the paste colour changes to pink, it indicates there is water in the tank. Accordingly, the petrol bunk managers must alert the OMC to inspect the tank and initiate corrective steps.

Moreover, the blend of 20 per cent ethanol in petrol and a mix of water results in ethanol absorbing the water. Both petrol and ethanol with water get separated. Ethanol with water, by dint of high density, gets deposited in the bottom of the fuel tank. It gets sucked into the pump. Instead of petrol, the mix of ethanol and water gets dispensed to the motorists, causing trouble to them.

An official from HPCL in Vijayawada said, “We have to check specific cases of finding water in the fuel dispensed to the motorists. After finding out the reasons, we will rectify the lapse. In case any negligence is found on the part of petroleum traders also, we will initiate action as per norms.”

Recently Madhya Pradesh chief minister Mohan Yadav’s convoy of vehicles broke down after they were filled up with diesel that had a water mix, near Bhopal.