EVEN though diesel prices have dropped, some goods vehicle drivers are still looking for cheaper fuel.
Furtive savings: (Above) A lorry driver stops to get a refill. (Below) The middle-aged man who waits in the hut fills up the tanks. -- KUA CHEE SIONG
Some have been spotted driving to this makeshift and illegal fuel station in Tanjong Pagar railway station complex where they save about $50 for every full tank of diesel.
Just two weeks ago, diesel prices fell by 5 cents to $1.26 a litre.
This price does not include the discounts given at petrol stations.
Last October, prices fell from $1.37 to $1.31 a litre.
But at this fuel station off the junction of Kampong Bahru Road and Jalan Bukit Merah, diesel can be bought for 80 cents a litre, said a source.
It is not known how the seller manages to obtain the diesel.
But prices vary from day to day, probably because the supply depends on an uncertain source.
The station is the size of a basketball court.
A few sofas and tables are scattered under a canvas sheet that acts as a roof.
Trucks and vans can reach the hut by driving into the KTM railway land using Spooner Road, which is located off Kampong Bahru Road.
Goods vehicles stop just outside the hut and a tanned middle-aged man will walk out to talk to the drivers.
The New Paper on Sunday observed the hut from an overhead bridge on Kampong Bahru Road on Tuesday.
After a 15-minute wait, a lorry with a Singapore licence plate drove into the fenced-up compound.
The middle-aged man, wearing a long sleeve T-shirt and jeans, emerged from the hut and greeted the driver.
As the driver walked into the hut - presumably to use the toilet there - the man started filling up the lorry with a pump, connected to a metal tank raised a few metres above ground.
Even as he was filling the lorry's tank, he was smoking, oblivious to the risk involved.
The lorry driver walked back to the lorry a few minutes later and drove off after paying the man.
Later when The New Paper on Sunday asked him about about his 'station', he kept quiet.
He later said: 'People in other places are also doing this.'
When asked how he gets the diesel, he replied: 'I don't know anything. I'm just a worker here.'
He declined to talk anymore and walked away.
Technical officer D Anthonysamy, 40, who lives in a HDB flat 200m away from the illegal diesel station, said: 'There are a lot of oil drums around the makeshift tent and it's under the hot sun.
'So I don't know if it's safe.
'I can see it easily from the main road. I spotted it two months ago but I think it's been there much longer than that.'
NEA CONTACTED
When contacted, the National Environment Agency (NEA) said it would be looking into the matter.
Last year, the NEA caught an offender selling diesel illegally at Punggol. In 2005, another similar offender was caught in Jurong Road.
Both offenders were charged in court and fined $1,000 each, the NEA said.
Under the law, illegal-diesel sellers can be fined up to $1,000 for the first offence.
Repeat offenders face a higher fine and jail.
Source
THEY SAVE $50 ON ILLEGAL DIESEL HERE 
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