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motorcycles, Tk 1,500 to cars, and Tk 2,000 to SUVs till at least 2:00am today.

A rent-a-car driver, Alam last bought fuel worth Tk 5,000 on March 25, which was nearly exhausted by then.

“With Tk 2,000 worth of fuel, my hybrid SUV can run about 200 kilometres. I usually drive over 100km a day, which means I will have to queue again within the next two days,” he said.

“It’s becoming increasingly difficult to manage work under such conditions.”

Queues stretching across multiple roads have grown longer over the past few days, despite earlier expectations from officials that the situation would ease after the government announced no increase in local fuel prices.

In the capital, in many areas, queues from one filling station extended up to the next, effectively occupying the entire first lane of the road, and sometimes disrupting traffic flow.

A visit between 3:00pm and 5:00pm to 12 filling stations in Tejgaon, Mohakhali, and the Gulshan link road area found three stations closed, while the rest were struggling to handle the queue.

The Tejgaon-Mohakhali road was busier than usual for a holiday, with traffic police managing both signals and congestion caused by long queues at fuel pumps.

Visits to the same stations over the past week suggest the situation is worsening.

At the same spot before the Trust Filling Station, Md Jasim Uddin was seen waiting in line at 1:00pm on April 1 after joining the queue at 4:00am --- a wait of around nine hours.

Tensions occasionally flared after station-imposed sales limits, with customers protesting after hours of waiting.

“Why didn’t you inform us earlier about the cap? Did I wait 14–15 hours just for Tk 1,500 worth of fuel?” a private car owner shouted at staff.

He also questioned why some VIP vehicles were being served from the other side of the queue, saying it further slowed the process for others.

A staff member at the station, requesting anonymity, told The Daily Star that defence personnel and their families have long received priority at the pump.

“We check IDs for those who receive such privileges,” he said.

Similar queues were observed at Ideal, Sikder, Southern, Satata, Clean, Royal, and Eureka filling stations in the area, most of which were rationing fuel.

Most stations were limiting sales to Tk 500–600 for motorcycles and Tk 1,500–2,000 for cars. In addition, stations such as SR, Tashofa, and Shohag were either closed or displaying “No Octane” signs.

Fuel station operators claimed they were not receiving adequate supplies to meet the surge in demand, forcing them to ration sales.

The government say it is supplying fuel to filling stations from depots based on the April 2025 demand, blaming panic buying for the shortages at the stations.

The government said a ship brought 25,000 tonnes of octane on April 1, and another ship is expected to bring a similar shipment in mid-April. The shipments are expected to meet the country’s demand for around 40 days.

On March 30, Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Iqbal Hassan Mahmood Tuku said fuel sales at Trust Filling Station rose in March to 10,620 litres per day, up from 5,400 litres per day in March 2025.

Meanwhile, the BPC is trying to secure up to 3,30,000 tonnes of diesel in 14 vessels and three consignments through the pipeline.

A vessel carrying 27,000 tonnes of diesel from Singapore reached Chattogram Port yesterday, according to Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC). Another vessel carrying around 30,000 tonnes is expected to arrive within the next couple of days.