Zakir Hussain
Dimapur | December 18
As we all know Dimapur district is the commercial centre of Nagaland, and after Guwahati, it is the second most important place in the entire northeast, commercially. Dimapur is fast turning into a city, therefore business minded people across Nagaland are targeting Dimapur, to expand their business, as the city and its outskirts has sufficient space to contain commercial buildings.
Sensing Dimapur, as the perfect destination for business and as a growing city, major national oil companies like, IOC, the Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited, IBP Limited, Reliance, Essar, NRL and Assam Oil have been trying to expand their business and have positioned many outlets in the city and suburbs. That is why Dimapur is witnessing the rapid increase of petrol pumps within a short span of time.
With the presence of so many petrol pumps in Dimapur, there is a stiff competition among themselves to catch the attention of consumers. To attract more and more customers, the oil companies have increased the range of their value-added service and facilities like promotional schemes, convenience stores, drinking water facility, toilets, air, quality oil, newspapers, tea and uniforms for petrol pump attendants. These facilities have been launched to keep customers happy. In Dimapur, for the customers, the major benefit is the increase in the number of petrol pumps, which would provide them with more choice and these petrol pumps are undergoing a major facelift so that it would suit the image of the company and to attract consumers.
Many oil companies have introduced different oil based products like, Power Petrol and Super Diesel by Hindustan Petroleum, Xtra Premium petrol and Xtra Mile diesel by Assam Oil, Punch by Essar and Xtra Mile Diesel and Xtra Premium Petrol by IOC, however, these premium fuels are at bit higher than ordinary fuels.
“Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) is giving a tough competition to other companies and the response of people towards NRL is very good,” said Dinesh Chaudhary of NRL, Padum Pukhuri, Dimapur. He said that at NRL, we have super quality petrol and diesel, the price of the petrol is Rs. 43.02 while the diesel is Rs. 30.34. NRL Padum Pukhuri also provides newspapers to consumers and has a Quick Shoppe, a convenience store having bakery items.
Krishna, counter In-charge of Hindustan Petroleum (HP) near Naharbari junction, said “Petrol pumps are growing in Dimapur, as the city is developing and people are spending money to set up petrol pumps in Dimapur.” “Here in HP, the quality checking is very strict, in one month; there are five or six times quality checking conducted by the officials of HP from Jorhat, Assam,” he said.
“At Essar, we have Ultra Rich Petrol (Punch) at Rs. 43.55 for Petrol and Rs. 31.85 Diesel and we also provide other facilities like Air, water and toilets to our consumers,” said Bhagwan Giri, accountant of Essar at Walford, Dimapur.
Toviho Kiho, SS of Reliance Petrol Pump near City Tower Junction, said “The response of customers are positive as Reliance has quality petrol, but due to recent price rise of Reliance petrol, the sale is a bit going down, however, after visiting the Reliance petrol pump, customers again turn up.” The price of Reliance petrol is Rs. 47.50 while the diesel is Rs. 35.35.
“Costumers do not mind paying a little extra for getting a superior performance fuel,” said RB Singh, accountant of IOC at Fellowship colony, Dimapur. He also admitted that there is tough competition among petrol pumps in Dimapur and maintained that due to business links and close relations with people, every petrol pumps manage to survive this competition. The most important feature of these growing petrol pumps in Dimapur is that they are creating employment avenues for the local youths.
