Kolkata: 92-yr-old petrol pump tracks rising graph of fuel price

KOLKATA: One of the oldest fuel stations in India, and possibly the first kerbside refuelling facilities in Kolkata, Jatadhari Daw & Grandsons on CR Avenue near Girish Park has witnessed the rise and rise of petrol and diesel prices like no other place in the city. “My great grandfather had opened a fuel station when the concept of petrol pumps had not even arrived in this part of India. We were also the first ones to start a kerbside petrol pump and continue to function from the same spot. I can’t say what the fuel price was when my ancestor started this fuel station in 1929, but back in 1965, when I was around 10 years old, I remember petrol was priced at 90 paise per litre. For a gallon, or 5 litres, of petrol, we used to hand out a change of 50 paise when somebody paid with a Rs 5 note,” said Kanchan Daw, the current proprietor of the fuel station named after his grandfather.At present, Daw’s family owns three fuel stations in Kolkata — one on JM Avenue and one at Gariahat, apart from the pump on CR Avenue, which is the oldest of the lot.Daw said his family owned a zamindari in Budge Budge where they had set up an oil storage and used to store imported gasoline brought along the sea from the UK. The importers were then called Asiatic Petroleum. “Back in the 1920s, our family used to sell petrol from an establishment on Canning Street. During the petroleum revolution in India, following Asiatic Petroleum (India) joining hands with the Burmah Oil Co to form the Burmah-Shell Oil Storage & Distributing Co, our ancestor built this petrol pump in 1929,” said Daw.By the time, Bharat Refineries acquired complete ownership of Burmah-Shell’s interests in India in 1976, Daw had taken over control of the business from his father.“We have practically seen the change around us and have changed ourselves according to it. We modernized our fuel station, had a service station and a large office, which we later replaced with in-and-out stores, and now we have increased our frontage to 100ft to meet the current specifications as we offer a large space for cars to enter and exit our fuel station with ease,” said Daw, whose family is also famous for organizing a Durga Puja for over 100 years at their Jorasanko home.However, among all the changes that the fuel station on CR Avenue has been part of, Daw said the spiralling rise in price of petrol and diesel over the last year has hurt him the most.“I have been in this business for long, but have never witnessed a situation like this. I have seen people coming to our fuel station and refilling their tanks to the brim. But that doesn’t happen regularly anymore and what used to be a lucrative business once has become a survival issue now. But we will continue with the business and so will my future generation. We will continue this legacy our ancestors had initiated,” said Daw.