Colombo, Mar 6 (IANS): Sri Lanka's Tourism Ministry on Sunday announced that diesel vehicles registered with the Tourism Development Authority will be given priority access to fuel at state-owned bus depots amid an ongoing shortage of fuel in the island nation.

Vehicles that qualify for this scheme will be given an identity sticker, Xinhua news agency quoted local media reports as saying.

The decision was made at a meeting chaired by Minister of Finance Basil Rajapaksa and attended by officials from the Tourism and Transport Ministries, which was held following reports that a number of tourist transporting vehicles were stranded across the country due to fuel shortages.

The Tourism Ministry has also urged police authorities to provide assistance to the stranded tourist vehicles, and to help the hotels hosting tourists to procure diesel to run electricity generators.

Tourism has been one of the most affected sectors by fuel shortages and electricity cuts since February in Sri Lanka.