Fuel adulteration has reached acute levels as the Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has failed to monitor the quality of fuel supplied in the market. Senior technicians at workshops of leading motorcycle distributors said incidences of engine damage caused by adulterated fuel have risen dramatically over the past two months. "Some 50 percent of the three dozen bikes we service daily have problems caused by contaminated fuel,' said Mukesh Lamichhane, technician and operator of a garage in Anamnagar. Although not quantifying the extent, Sita Ram Neupane, chief technician at Syakar's Hero Honda workshop in Kathmandu, stated that he was presently dealing with at least six cases of major problems caused by substandard gasoline everyday. "The problem is not just limited to the Kathmandu Valley,' said Neupane, adding that workshops in Biratnagar and Birgunj also reported an equally high number of cases in recent weeks. Consumers lament the way their rides are being destroyed by tainted petrol, and also the hardship they endured to get their hands on the few liters in their tanks. The adulterated fuel has been costing them heavily, both in terms of repair costs and decline in mileage. Pushpa Budathoki, driver of taxi number Ba 1 Ja 1596, said that the fuel he acquired last week damaged the carburetor, costing him some Rs 500 to repair it. "The vehicle still shows pick-up problems. Mileage has also dropped from 15 km per liter to 12 km,' he told the Post. Such problems, at a time when petrol is difficult to come by, has exerted undue pressure on vehicle owners. Technicians said early damage to the piston and problems related to the valves and carburetors are among the widely reported complaints at present. While petrol and diesel contaminated with cheap kerosene cause these problems, mechanics said they were also finding foreign particles in the fuel. "Our investigation has led us to conclude that suppliers are largely mixing alcohol in petrol these days,' said Neupane. Others said they have found sediments like carbon in the fuel tank which they have not been able to trace. Technicians said that consumers were presently suffering a drop in mileage by 20 percent, a twofold rise in maintenance costs and greater depreciation in the vehicle's value because of the malpractice. NOC officials, however, said they have not come across a single instance of wrongdoing by their dealers. "The problem could be with the fuel black marketers are selling in jerry cans and bottles,' said Mahesh Jung Rana of the Quality Inspection Department of the corporation, adding that the NOC could do nothing in such cases. Rana said that the NOC, however, has caught 29 dealers for selling kerosene on the black market at prices as high as Rs 92 per liter. "We have fined them Rs 10,000 and suspended supplies to them for a month,' Rana said.