Gas shortage pushes households, eateries towards coal & firewood

Patna: With LPG cylinder supplies severely disrupted due to escalating tensions in West Asia, thousands of hotels, restaurants, hostels, roadside dhabas or eateries, large catering set-ups and even individual households across the city have shifted to traditional firewood and coal for cooking as stopgap solutions.

In the past few days alone, demand for these traditional fuels has increased two to four times the usual sales.Tamanna Khan, owner of a coal depot, a major wholesale supplier of wood charcoal and stone coal located near the Patna GPO roundabout, described the unprecedented rush. “Within a week, demand for both wood coal and stone coal shot up by about 300%. We sold roughly 16 tonnes of combined wood and stone coal in just one week.

Retailers from almost every locality in Patna — Kankarbagh, Boring Road, Bailey Road, Rajabazar, Gardanibagh and beyond — came in, amid the rise in customers and the LPG cylinder shortage.

”Mustafa, a retailer from Rajabazar who loaded fresh stock at his shop, added: “The prices also went up slightly by 5-10% due to heavy demand. Stone coal is being sold at Rs 30 per kg, while wood charcoal is available at Rs 450 per 10kg pack.

We expect sales to increase further if the situation escalates.”“What used to cost much less is now a little more expensive, but we have no alternative. Our customers — small eateries and hostels — need fuel to cook, so we keep buying even at high rates,” said Mustafa.Shailendra Kumar, managing director of a coal trader at Yogipur, said wooden charcoal sales declined as some hostels shut due to the ongoing situation, but sales of stone charcoal went up by 12-14%.

“The coal is being sold at Rs 20 per kg and Rs 12,000-Rs 14,000 per tonne,” he said.Echoing the same, Kaminder Yadav, a coal dealer at Kankarbagh, said sales went up amid the shortage of LPG cylinders. “Owners of hostels and restaurants are buying coal in bulk to run their businesses. Even establishments involved in catering for events are approaching us,” he said.Mohnish Kumar, managing director of a coal mining company, said around a 25% hike was witnessed in the sale of stone coal in the last few days.

“We provide the coal in bulk, which starts from Rs 10,000 per quintal to Rs 20,000 depending on the quality of the material. We are seeing a rush of suppliers and manufacturers,” he told this newspaper.Rajesh Singh, who operates a shop near Patna Junction, said: “Bundles of coal that sold for Rs 300-400 last week are now fetching Rs 500-600 or more per 10kg. Hotels, wedding caterers, dhabas and even roadside tea stalls are our biggest buyers right now.”