Earlier, petrol pumps used to close at 8 pm.
In a bid to help ease crowds at petrol stations, Tamil Nadu government on Saturday extended the working hours by an additional two hours. Petrol bunks across the state would now remain open until 10 pm as opposed to the 8 pm deadline that was there earlier. The state government made the announcement in order to avoid crowding at the retail outlets and also make the fuel available without difficulty.
Following a request from the Indian Oil Corporation, the Department of Co-operation, Food and Consumer Protection had requested the government to permit the petrol pumps to function upto 10 pm to serve the customers and to avoid crowding at the retail outlets which shut at 8 pm.
Accepting the proposal, the state government amended the earlier order of the Revenue and Disaster Management department dated August 31 to permit fuel outlets to function from 6 am to 10 pm, as per the amendment to the notification issued by state chief secretary K Shanmugam.
Earlier, it had permitted the petrol pumps to function from 6 am to 8 pm on all days of the week. Shops and restaurants too are presently allowed to stay open until 8.00 pm across the state. Tamil Nadu government had extended the lockdown until the end of this month while putting in place several relaxations, considerably easing lockdown norms. As per the relaxations, temples, malls and other shopping complexes have been allowed to reopen after close to five months of staying shut.
Tamil Nadu reported 5,495 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, out of which 978 were from Chennai. There are 47,110 patients currently undergoing treatment for COVID-19 in the state. A total of 6,227 patients were discharged from hospitals on Saturday, and with it a total of 4,41,649 persons have recovered from COVID-19 in the state. Seventy-six new COVID-19 deaths were reported on Saturday, taking the total number of fatalities to 8,307.
(With inputs from PTI)
Source: The News Minute