Guwahati: In view of the violence in Manipur, which has led to a major crisis of fuel and other essential commodities, the employees and contract workers of the Oil Marketing Companies were unable to reach the installations due to security constraints or had to be evacuated due to the ethnic clashes.
The installations were either shut down due to the non-availability of employees or not fully operational due to a shortage of manpower.
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This led to the operational necessity of deploying the 414 Army Service Corps Battalion Marketing Territorial Army (414 ASC Battalion Marketing TA), to manage the three vital Oil installations, which were the energy lifeline for Manipur, namely the Imphal Aviation Fueling Station, Malom Bulk Oil Depot and the Sekmai Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) bottling plant.
In view of the growing crisis of fuel in the entire state, the battalion was assigned the task of taking control of the Oil Installations which were not operational and augmenting manpower, where there was a shortage, and to ensure the supply of essential Petroleum, Oil or Lubricants (POL) products, and refueling of the aircraft.
The 414 ASC Battalion Marketing TA reached Imphal within 48 hours of being assigned the task, and with relentless hard work within the next 12 hours, the Malom Depot was made fully operational, with the oil-filled tankers being dispatched, Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) tankers decanted, and several flights, both civil and defense, were refueled.
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As on date, the depot is functioning at the same efficiency level, as it existed during the days preceding the crisis, with more than 400 tankers being dispatched, to various petrol pumps across the hill state, to the Manipur Police, Army and the Assam Rifles units.
Seeing the stupendous performance, the initial tasking was expanded, and the 414 ASC Battalion Marketing TA was further given the task to assist in the operations of the Sekmai LPG bottling plant, which is 26 kilometers from the Imphal town, a task, which was done with great momentum, with approximately 8,000-10,000 cylinders being dispatched daily.
The 414 ASC Battalion Marketing TA is one of the battalions raised in 1983 by the Indian government to cater for handling emergencies both internal and external.
The battalion is affiliated with the Marketing Division and has 100 Plus employees of Indian Oil.
These employees are trained by the Indian Army and Indian Oil to handle any oil installation, be it POL, LPG or Aviation, independently.
They are also kept abreast with nuances of operating various oil locations across the country periodically.