Oil PSUs to allot 65,000 petrol pumps ahead of general elections

New Delhi: Ahead of general elections, public sector oil companies plan to allot about 65,000 petrol pumps across the country to nearly double the existing retail network, officials said Sunday.

Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) Sunday issued advertisements for setting up 55,649 petrol pumps across the country.

"This does not include any sites in poll-bound states," HPCL's state-level coordinator Vishal Bajpai told reporters here.

Assembly elections are on in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram and advertisement for these would be issued after polling is completed.

IOC, which already has 27,377 petrol pumps across the country, has advertised for setting up 26,982 more in states that are not going to polls. BPCL will add 15,802 outlets to its existing strength of 14,592 and HPCL would add 12,865 petrol pumps to its current tally of 15,287.

Delhi has 390 petrol pumps, and 170 more are to be set up, Bajpai said.

The poll-bound states may have some 9,000-10,000 sites, another official said.

The allotments will be done on relaxed guidelines which have lowered the educational qualification to 10th pass from 12th pass and graduate currently, and the only essential requirement is ownership of the land where the pump is to be set up, Bajpai said.