NEW DELHI: Petrol pumps in metros are running out of space since their design is ill-equipped to cope with the rush of diesel vehicles that have recorded a nine-fold growth in sales in the last decade as the government’s pricing policy widens the price differential with petrol.

Last week’s increase in petrol price has made the fuel costlier than diesel by Rs 19.64 in Delhi, or over 30%. This is expected to push diesel car sales even higher. In 2000, only four-five out of every 100 vehicles registered in Delhi was running on diesel. Government data peg that figure at 36.

Petrol pump operators say this is crowding the limited diesel dispensing bay, and affecting their ability to refuel vehicles quickly. “Pumps in Delhi and other metros are old and were designed with petrol cars in mind. They have one-two diesel dispensers near the entrance so that trucks etc re-fuelled from the boundary itself. But the swelling number of diesel cars are resulting in crowding at diesel bays,” one pump-owner said.

“Earlier, most of the diesel was being bought by buses and trucks or in bulk by industry and farmers. A truck would come and take 200-250 litres and goods carriers would easily take 50-60 litres. So you had a small number of vehicles but high volume of diesel sale and could do with one-two nozzles. But not anymore,” Ajay Bansal, general secretary of All India Federation of Petroleum Traders, told ToI.

The 400-odd petrol pumps in Delhi are broadly built on plots measuring 30 by 17 metres or 36 by 30 metres. On an average, each has a capacity to store 110-120 kl (kilo litre) of fuel in the ratio of 35% diesel and 65% petrol. “With no additional land available near these pumps, installing additional tanks or dispensers has its own problems and in cases further clog queue area for cars,” Bansal said.

Oil company executives said the new pumps are being designed with the changing profile of vehicle sales and the companies are installing multi-product dispensers to tackle the problem. “Each of these dispensers can push four products. So customers can drive to any bay. At about Rs 4 lakh apiece, the installation of such nozzles would cost Rs 20 lakh on an average for each pump,” a senior IndianOil executive told ToI.

Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum have got a head start in installing multi-product dispensers. IndianOil is expected to have dispensers at its Delhi pumps in eight-12 months.