#JUSTIN: Minister Says MSRTC Has Two-Month Fuel Supply, Admits No Contingency Plan

The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) will not face a diesel‑supply crisis for the next two months, the state Transport Minister Pratap Sarnaik has said, even as he admitted the government has no clear “plan B” should fuel supplies later dry up. Sarnaik’s remarks come amid rising concerns over volatile global oil markets and the long‑term vulnerability of a public bus fleet that still depends overwhelmingly on diesel.

The minister told reporters in Mumbai that Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has assured MSRTC priority fuel allocation, placed third in the pecking order after the defence sector and the railways. This arrangement is expected to keep MSRTC’s diesel supplies steady for roughly 60 days, giving the corporation a temporary buffer against disruptions from any escalation in the West Asia conflict or other supply shocks. Sarnaik insisted that, as of now, MSRTC is receiving its full diesel requirement and there is no immediate threat to its daily operations.

At the same time, Sarnaik candidly acknowledged that the government does not have a ready alternative fuel strategy if diesel supplies are cut beyond the two‑month horizon. “We can’t even have a plan B,” he said, underlining that the corporation’s only fallback would be the existing two‑month cushion; if neither IOC nor the state government can secure diesel, MSRTC would be forced to suspend services. This absence of a contingency plan highlights the fragile dependence of Maharashtra’s public bus network on a single conventional fuel source, despite repeated policy announcements of a greener transition.

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MSRTC operates around 15,800 buses across the state, burning roughly 10.87 lakh litres of diesel every day, which translates into about 40 crore litres annually and a fuel bill of close to ₹3,400 crore per year. To partially offset these mounting costs, the corporation has adopted a competitive bidding process for diesel procurement, which has already secured a higher per‑litre discount and is projected to save around ₹241 crore in the coming year. Officials say the savings will be reinvested into service improvements and fleet‑modernisation efforts, but even these financial measures do not address the underlying strategic risk of relying so heavily on diesel.

In the medium term, the state government has announced plans to convert 5,000 existing diesel buses to run on liquefied natural gas (LNG) and to add about 5,150 electric buses as part of a broader green‑transport push. However, at present over 90 percent of MSRTC’s fleet still runs on diesel, with only about 780 electric buses deployed, mostly on select routes in and around urban centres. Sarnaik conceded that the current EV fleet is too small to meaningfully replace diesel‑run services in the event of a major fuel‑supply shock, leaving the corporation’s “plan B” effectively limited to the two‑month diesel buffer rather than a robust alternative‑fuel infrastructure.

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