Nagpur: As fuel anxiety grips Nagpur, motorists are being pushed to the city’s fringes in a desperate hunt for petrol or diesel. With several pumps within city limits either shutting early or buckling under unprecedented demand, commuters are now travelling 10-15 km outward, only to find themselves trapped in long, unmoving queues.What began as scattered shortages has snowballed into a full-blown rush at outlets along Wardha Road and Kamptee Road. Service roads near these pumps resemble clogged arteries, with cars forming snaking lines far longer than the usual two-wheeler queues. Tempers are fraying as uncertainty looms large over when normal supply will resume.Kiran Tekam, who was on his way to AIIMS in MIHAN to visit a patient, found himself caught in the chaos he tried to avoid. “I skipped outlets near Narendra Nagar and Chhatrapati Square after seeing the longer queues, thinking outskirts pumps would be easier. But I’ve been stuck here for 15 minutes already, with several vehicles still ahead,” he said, gesturing at the slow crawl of traffic.The fear of running dry is pushing motorists to fill up whenever they get the chance. Pankaj Borkar, a Jamtha resident working in MIHAN, waited over 40 minutes to tank up his bike. “I didn’t want to take chances. If there’s an emergency and I have no petrol, what will I do?” he said, echoing a sentiment shared by many in the queue.Even daily commuters accustomed to long routes are taken aback by the scale of the rush. Dilip Bhadoriya, an e-rickshaw driver operating between Jamtha and Khapri, said the situation escalated rapidly. “I’ve never seen queues like this in the morning. Even yesterday wasn’t this bad,” he added.Akash Tambe, driving to Chandrapur, seemed rather skeptical about his trip. “City petrol pumps are not letting us fill beyond 2 litres of diesel. Fortunately, the situation is not as dire at the ones here at Jamtha, but by tomorrow, it will all be the same,” he said.Fuel station staff say the pressure intensified sharply on Tuesday evening as it became clear that city pumps could no longer handle the swelling crowds. “After 5–6 pm, vehicles started pouring in from across the city,” said an employee at an outskirts pump. While no official cap on fuel has been announced, attendants are informally discouraging full-tank refills and urging citizens to avoid panic buying.
