As the news of a hike in fuel prices began to percolate down in the city, commuters hurried off to their nearby filling stations before the new prices came into effect from Wednesday midnight.

Most residents were, however, in for disappointment when they were only supplied as per the limits imposed by the stations to avoid hoarding of fuel.

Petrol pump owners imposed a limit on the quantity of fuel to be supplied to each vehicle, at Rs 200 for two-wheelers and Rs 500 for other vehicles.

It was, however, a long wait for those queued up outside the petrol pumps.

Several vehicle owners were also heard complaining that petrol pumps had closed down operations much before their scheduled closing time.

“I went to buy petrol from a pump near Mall Road but to my utter dismay, I found it closed well before time,” said a disgruntled commuter.

Raju Sharma, owner of a petrol pump on Humbra Road near Kitchlu Nagar, said he called it a day around 11.15 pm, around 45 minutes before the scheduled closing time.

“There was a lot of rush and though I had put up ropes and barriers, there were so many vehicles that it took us a lot of time to wind up,” Sharma said, adding that a couple of hours of sales doubled his average sales of the day.

Minor brawls were also reported from petrol stations across the city.

“I do not have a drop of petrol in my car’s fuel tank or I would have preferred to avoid a mad rush like this,” said Rupinder Singh who was stuck at a petrol pump for almost 40 minutes.