Is mobile petrol pump a good idea for India? How will it work?

Preeti Taneja

Entrepreneur | Posted on 23-Aug-2018

Self-serving machines are the classic sign of tech-progress, regardless of how broken the remaining of the system is. So it was about time India got its glory of ‘tech-progress’ through mobile petrol pumps.

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Earlier this month, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has approved the proposed concept of portable petrol pumps in India. Alinz, a Delhi-based company, will partner with a Czech firm Petrocard to make four manufacturing units in the country with an investment of Rs 1,600 crore.

These units will make portable pumps, which will be self-served. The fueling stations will be unmanned and the customers will make digital payments. Initially, the plans are to produce 50,000 of such portable petrol pumps in the next 5 years.

Sure the idea is incredibly ambitious. And the portable pumps have plenty of benefits. However, the project has evident flaws for a country like India. Alinz managing director Inderjeet Pruthi said that such stations will be a big change-maker for people living in rural, mountainous and remote regions. Perhaps nobody told him, such regions in India usually have a very low internet *****. Moving along, people who do use the internet here, it’s very unlikely that they make digital payments. So, how would they really pay to the portable pumps?!

Next big challenge is Indian culture. Do you really think an unmanned portable petrol pump would not attract the eyes of hooliganism and loots?! There’s a reason why even the ATMs in our country are guarded by security guards. There’s a reason why even in the urban areas we don’t have vending machines. People can’t leave such self-serving machines alone. Maintenance cost of such portable pumps would be extremely high. And ineffective and rough usage would ensure you see “out of service” board more often than not like you do with your local ATM machine.

Besides, lakhs of people are employed at traditional petrol pumps in India. If these portable ones come in, where would they go? Do you think they wouldn’t protest and create ruckus?!

The project approval to install 50,000 portable petrol pumps across India is just supposed to be a part of election campaigns. That’s it. In reality, it will NEVER pan out. Not even in the next 20 years, let alone five. The government will misleadingly claim how the country is progressing, they will include the example of portable petrol pumps, with much of the applause of the doomed crowd.