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Petrol pumps in India

Demand ÷ capacity — the canonical infrastructure build.

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5 min read
infrastructuredemand-capacity

Estimate the number of petrol pumps (fuel stations) in India. Infrastructure guesstimates almost always resolve as total demand ÷ capacity per unit: fuel consumed nationally ÷ what one station can viably sell.

The full tree — each vehicle class carries its own count × intensity. Note commercial vehicles: 8% of the fleet, ~60% of the fuel.
1

Fleet

Registered-and-active: ~250M two-wheelers, ~60M cars, ~28M commercial vehicles (trucks, buses, LCVs).

2

Fuel per vehicle

2W ~0.6 L/day, cars ~1.5 L/day, commercial ~12 L/day (they run all day — this is the term beginners underweight).

3

National demand

150 + 90 + 340 ≈ ~580M litres/day.

4

Station viability

A station needs ~6,000–7,000 L/day blended to survive (urban much higher, highway/rural lower).

5

Count

580M ÷ 6,500 ≈ ~90,000 pumps.

(250M×0.6 + 60M×1.5 + 28M×12) ÷ 6,500 L/station ≈ 580M ÷ 6.5k ≈ ~90k pumps

How to defend it

The insight to volunteer: commercial vehicles consume more fuel than all private vehicles combined despite being ~8% of the fleet. Interviewers reward the candidate who weights by usage intensity, not vehicle count.