The 12-hour long strike by the petrol pump retailers affected movement of the long distance buses and other sectors in the city on Thursday. According to the information received, about 45 per cent of 300 long distance buses going towards Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and other districts of Jharkhand could not leave the Sitaramdera Bus Terminus as several petrol pump outlets remained closed. Thirty-six petrol pumps remained shut from 6 am till 6 pm in the city.
Upender Sharma, patron of the Jamshedpur Bus Owner's Association said that the strike has impacted the movement of long distance buses. “Though we were aware of the proposed 12-hour strike by the petrol pump outlets but several buses came from other States and reached the city on Wednesday night and Thursday morning and due to statewide strike they could not refill. Due to the risk several buses were cancelled,” said Sharma. The bus owners of cancelled buses suffered losses of about Rs2,000-3,000, due to the strike.
The common people who did not pay heed to the strike also suffered. Though the petrol pump outlets had notifies the people about the strike several vans and autos suffered.A van operator said that he had forgotten to refill after coming from school. In morning he realized his mistake when he saw the fuel outlet near residence shut.
“We had read about the strike in the paper but we never knew that the impact of the strike would be so wide. We could not deliver the lPG gas cylinders today. The job will be done tomorrow,” said Rajesh Sahu, a driver of Agrawal Gas Traders, Jugsalai.The Sitaramdera bus terminus on an average caters to over 100 long-distance buses that that heads towards Ranchi, Dhanbad, Bokaro and Hazaribagh in Jharkhand and Bengal, Odisha and Bihar.