A bitumen crisis would have forced suspension of pre-Puja road repairs in the rain-ravaged city, had it not been for the timely intervention of Union petroleum minister Murli Deora.

The Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) procures bulk (liquid) bitumen for road repairs from the Indian Oil Corporation’s Haldia plant. But a planned temporary shutdown of the plant since September 20 has left the CMC’s stocks dry. “Indian Oil had expressed its inability to resume normal supply before October 14,” said civic chief engineer (civil) P.K. Dhua.

“The civic body urgently requires 3,000 tonnes of bulk bitumen to repair 800 km (of a total of 1,500 km) of city roads that have been damaged in last week’s prolonged downpour,” municipal commissioner Alapan Bandyopadhyay said on Sunday.

To stave off the crisis, mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya on Saturday night had faxed a plea to Deora, urging him to get Indian Oil to do the needful. The minister’s intervention worked. “We are ready to meet all the requirements of the CMC,” said Debasis Sen, the general manager (east) of Indian Oil.

The company on Sunday started supplying packed (solid) bitumen from its Haldia unit and Uluberia depot. “Thanks to the minister’s effort, the company has arranged for conversion of packed bitumen to the bulk variety, which is required for repairs, at a private industrial unit in Howrah,” said civic commissioner Bandyopadhyay. “Besides, it has arranged for three transporters to bring liquid bitumen from its Barauni plant.”

Sources in Indian Oil said the company had informed the CMC in mid-August that the Haldia plant would be temporarily closed down from September 20. “We had passed on the information to the civic body much in advance, so they could make alternative arrangements.”

But Bandyopadhyay pleaded that the CMC hardly had any option. “We could not have procured liquid bitumen in advance, as it cannot be stored. And we don’t have the set-up to convert the packed variety, which the Haldia unit has not stopped supplying, to its liquid form.”

The CMC’s deputy chief engineer (civil), Soumitra Bhattacharyya, said: “Indian Oil had asked us to source liquid bitumen from Barauni. But we did not have transporters who could have brought the supply to Calcutta. Besides, the transport cost will be much higher.”