Most petrol pumps set up in Dhaka city flouting distance rule

Most of the petrol pumps in Dhaka city have been built in an unplanned way although there is a specific government policy to maintain minimum distance between two stations.

Transport and petroleum sector insiders said this creates a problem for consumers to get fuel for their vehicles easily on their way to destinations.

According to them, the situation is getting worse as the number of motor vehicles is on the rise but the number of fuel stations is decreasing in the city.  

Officials of Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC), the principal body in the petroleum sector, said the government issued a gazette notification with some amendments on 16 January regarding setting up new petrol pumps in city corporation areas, district towns and elsewhere.

As per the government policy, there should be a distance of 1 km between two petrol pumps on the opposite side and 2 km on the same side. The distance is double for petrol pumps outside the city corporations and district towns which are mainly on highways.

But in most cases, such distance was not properly maintained when the pumps were set up in Dhaka city.    

A top BPC official admitted that the pumps in Dhaka city were set up in an unplanned way and the distance was not maintained properly.

But all these were done before the new policy was framed, he said, adding, currently no new pumps are being set up.

"Actually, people lack interest in setting up new petrol pump on a private land in Dhaka metropolitan area due to excessive value of land," he told UNB.

Echoing the same, president of Bangladesh Petrol Pump Owners Association Nazmul Haque said it's really tough to run petrol pump business on private land as using land for other purposes is more profitable.   

Many pump owners are now closing their refueling businesses and trying to build residential or commercial complexes on the same land to get better return, he added.

According to the Petrol Pump Owners Association, there are a total of about 4000 petrol pumps across the country while there are 300 in Dhaka district and 80 in Dhaka city.

There are about 50 pumps located within Dhaka North City Corporation area while 30 are located under Dhaka South City Corporation.

A good number of the filling stations were set up in a cluster manner in some locations close to the inter-district bus terminals, he said adding that Mohakhali, Gabtoli and Saydabad to Jatrabari are among such locations.

Nazmul Haque informed that in the last 20 years 11 petrol pumps were closed by their owners and the lands were utilised for building high-rise markets, apartment or commercial purposes.

He also noted that there has been an embargo from the district administration since general Ershad's period on setting up filling station from Mohakhali to Shahjalal International Airport on security grounds.

"There is only a pump in the Nikunja area, set up by state-owned Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC)," he added. 

He said primarily, the deputy commissioner (DC) of Dhaka provides permission to set up any petrol pump in any location within Dhaka district and the final permission comes from BPC.

He, however, noted that there are 14 separate authorities including Department of Explosives, Fire Service and Department of Environment to get prior permission before the final approval from the BPC.