Commercial cylinders become scarce, eateries feeling the heat

Disruption in oil and gas supply as a ripple effect of the Iran war has created a crisis for non-domestic consumers such as restaurants and industrial units across country. As govt prioritises domestic users, supply of commercial LPG cylinders has ground to a halt, as a result of which, hotels, restaurants and roadside eateries are staring at a dire situation.In Bengaluru, small and medium-scale eateries might shut down by Tuesday as they are likely to run out of cooking gas, said Bangalore Hotels' Association. Only 10% of the hotels and restaurants received supply on Monday, said P C Rao, honorary president of the association. This has raised concerns of disruption to the city's food services. In Mumbai, commercial LPG supply has been halted since Sunday. This might force hotels, restaurants and dhabas to buy domestic use cylinders from the black market, which is "dangerous", said a gas agency owner.

However, another city dealer said hotels would find it difficult to buy domestic cylinders in errant ways, since despatch is now OTP-based. "Even paying extra will not fetch them refills," he said.Sources in an oil marketing company claimed on Monday that there was no shortage of domestic LPG supply, but admitted there were "restrictions" on distributing commercial cylinders. In Kolkata, too, hotels, eateries, bakeries and catering services are worried about the likely disruption in operations.

Kamal Raza, general manager (development), The Lalit Suri Hospitality Group, said, "We are taking all measures to ensure minimisation in LPG usage."In Gujarat's Ahmedabad and Sanand, industrial clusters such as chemical and textile units are grappling with a sharp rise in input costs, lower production, tighter availability of raw materials and a cascading increase in prices, industry representatives said.

Chemical manufacturers said they are receiving only 40% of their gas requirements, forcing units to run at lower capacity.In Jaipur, industry representatives are worried the move will hit a wide spectrum of non-domestic users. With the wedding season in full swing and tourist inflows peaking on weekends, hoteliers said the prospect of cooking gas shortage was giving them sleepless nights.