The old airport at Juhu caters to offshore operations of the Bombay High-based Oil and Natural Gas Commission. It had only 12 or 13 aircraft movements on Thursday. Since Wednesday, not one ONGC helicopter has been used.

A senior airport official said the only flight movements at Juhu have been those of private charters. “On an average day, we have 35 departures and as many arrivals, with ONGC’s helicopters contributing as many as 28 to 30 departures and arrivals.”

The only one oil supplier at the Juhu base is the Indian Oil

Corporation (IOC), which has been the worst hit by the ongoing strike.

A senior ONGC official said production has dropped 40 to 50 per cent. On record, a spokesperson for the company said the overall impact has been partial but conceded it can get worse if the strike continues.

At the international airport, the strike delayed flights all day because the delivery of aviation turbine fuel was affected. “The departure of 76 flights was delayed between 5 am and 7 pm on Thursday,” said a spokesperson for the Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL).

Most airline officials were restrained in their comments on the strike, but some expressed to Newsline their concerns that supply lines could dry up in the next three to four days. “We have a project team to handle the situation as it’s certainly very unusual. As far as supplies are concerned, we’ll take a call tomorrow as all efforts are on to make sure that supplies remain intact,” said CEO of Jet Airways, Wolfgang Prock-Schauer.

IOC too acknowledged that supplies have been disrupted and the company is pushing to maintain its supply lines. The company conceded the impact would be greater if the strikes should continue as they’ve already started receiving reports of dry-outs in petrol pumps from some markets.

“There will be a larger impact but we are working towards maintaining our supplies by adding more (human) resources. We’re also maintaining supplies in critical areas like defence, railways and aviation but there are only 300 to 400 senior management officers to replace over 10,000 workers who have gone on strike,” said N Srikumar, general manager, corporate communications, IOC.

TWIN BLOWS

TRUCK STRIKE: Chief Minister Ashok Chavan invoked the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) against the defiant striking truckers in the state. The state now has the authority to arrest truckers who are disrupting the supply of essential commodities. After a marathon meeting with senior bureaucrats, Chavan has given a deadline to truck associations to resume services by Friday 9 am or “face consequences”. Chavan also threatened to call in the army.

OIL STRIKE: Oil companies have caused pumps in the city to almost dry up. Motorists queued up at pumps to fill their tanks. Fewer taxis and autorickshaws were on the roads as CNG stations were out of gas. BEST can run buses for three more days.

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