By Ashok Ghimire, Pokhara, Nov. 12: A 10-million liter petroleum storage house is to be built in Gandaki Province, Pokhara by Nepal Oil Cooperation (NAC) with a view to solving the distribution problem of petroleum products caused due to inadequate storage.

The NAC stated that it was constructing and renovating the Pokhara storage as per the government policy to build a storage house which can meet the petroleum products' demand for three months.

Lek Raj Bhatta, Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies, is scheduled to lay the foundation stone of the storage house today.

Two storage tanks, each having 5000 kiloliter capacity, are to be built in Pokhara Metropolitan City 29 and 30, at Gagangauda, in the premises of NAC Gandaki Province Office.

Binit Mani Upadhyaya, NAC spokesperson, informed that the tank is being constructed with an investment of Rs. 777.7 million excluding value added tax.

The storage house, which will be the second largest storage house of the country, can meet the petroleum demands up to 40-45 days only.

Surendra Poudel, Executive Director of the NAC, said, "The capacity building of Gandaki Provincial Depot has been started as the first project as per the announced policy of the corporation to expand fuel storage capacity for 90 days in each province.”

Surendra Poudel is of the view that the expanding the capacity of Pokhara depot storage will ultimately strengthen the distribution of petroleum products in the province.

The contact agreement has been signed for the construction of the Pokhra storage house and for the first time, Nepali contractor along with Indian constructing company is building any storage house project.

Even though the deadline for project completion is two years it is viewed that it will be finished before that.

The Gandaki Provincial Office of the NAC has been supplying petroleum products to Kaski, Parbat, Syangja, Baglung, Myagdi, Mustang and some parts of Tanahun in Gandaki.

At present, 240 kiloliters of diesel and 120 kiloliters of petrol are being sold daily from the provincial depot, whereas, 20 kiloliters of kerosene is being sold in a week.

The Gandaki provincial depot currently has a storage capacity of 2280 kiloliters of diesel, 350 kiloliters of petrol and 760 kiloliters of kerosene.

The corporation plans to store petrol in a tank that is currently storing diesel after the new storage house is built.