India ground to a near-total standstill today as a strike by oil employees left the country suffering a crippling fuel shortage.

Nearly 80 per cent of petrol stations in Delhi, the capital, and Mumbai, the financial centre, ran out of fuel by this afternoon, as authorities refused to give in to the demands of 55,000 workers striking at two government-run oil companies.

Tonight, it was announced that two of the biggest unions behind the strikes had called off their industrial action after huge pressure from the Indian Government, indicating that the crisis may be about to thaw, although ten others were continuing with it.

With output at refineries and oil fields reduced to only a trickle, the country’s main airports were also reporting delays to domestic flights — mainly to services operated by Jet Airways, because the state-run companies supply it with aviation turbine fuel. International flights were not thought to be affected.

There was a glimmer of hope for those affected by the action, after Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) and Oil India Limited (Oil), announcing that they were abandoning it.

"Over 70 pr cent of the people are working. We will be able to resume fuel supply at all market locations by this evening," S Radhakrishnan, BPCL's marketing director, said tonight.

"Since the strike is two-and-a-half days old, there is a backlog. We will be working on Saturday and Sunday, hopefully the situation will be normal by Monday," he said.

Amid chaotic scenes this afternoon, the already clogged streets of Delhi were almost completely gridlocked as petrol queues snaked well outside the petrol stations that still had fuel, obstructing traffic.

At one of the last petrol stations still open in the vapital, a BP garage in the Green Park area, The Times saw motorbikes, cars and rickshaws queuing out of the back of the station.

One motorcyclist near the front of a queue for petrol, Prakash Chavla, said: “It is not possible to live without petrol in Delhi. I travel a long way every day on my bike and I will be unable to get to work unless there is petrol.”

Another, Hussein Sekal, a courier, said: “Without petrol, I will lose my job.”

Earlier, RS Pandey, the Oil Secretary, told journalists that the military had been called in to carry out the movement of oil cargo at locations where striking workers refused.

As the Government ratcheted up the rhetoric, Palaniappan Chidambaram, the Home Minister, said that state governments should take “firm action” against protesting workers, who he said were putting the country’s citizens at risk.

The workers' action comes at the same time as a strike involving nearly five million lorry drivers, who are demanding fuel price cuts and waivers of toll charges for six months. The Indian Transport Ministry claims that there has so far been no impact on the supply of essential items.

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