Tshering Namgyal | Lhuentse

The reconstruction of fuel depot in Autsho that was gutted by fire in 2018 is almost complete.

Manager of Gyalpoizhing Fuel Depot, Nidup Dorji, who is monitoring the reconstruction project, said that more than 70  percent of the work was completed and the service would resume soon.

He said the construction of canopy of the underground fuel tank and the office building was over and was left with only electrification and paper block wall construction.

In the old depot, the fuel was served from the barrel. However, the new depot will have an underground fuel tank with the carrying capacity of 20,000 litres each for petrol and diesel. The depot will have four staff including the manager.

After the resumption of its service, refilling car tanks and LPG cylinders will no longer be expensive and time consuming for the residents of Autsho town in Lhuentse.

In the absence of a fuel depot in the town, the motorists drive all the way to the fuel depots in Lhuentse or Mongar, which is 40 and 38 kilometres away.

A shopkeeper in Autsho town, Cheki Dorji, who welcomed the service, said the local residents purposely go all the way to Mongar and Lhuentse for fueling and the depot would address the issue.

A fuel depot was opened at Jachung, about two kilometres away from Autsho towards Lhuentse in 2017 after the experts from the oil supplier visited the site and conducted a feasibility survey and finalised the design and layout of the fuel station. 

However, it became defunct once again after it caught fire in May 2018.

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