LPG curbs spark crisis for Guwahati restaurants; commercial supply put on hold

Guwahati, March 12: As the conflict in West Asia rages on, restaurants are staring at a potential crisis of commercial cylinders following government directives on rationing of LPG even as Indane’s booking system crashed today due to a surge in call volumes.

Indane’s LPG booking system saw significant outages due to a massive, 10-12 time surge in call volume, leading to booking failures during the day. However, the system was restored later in the day.

Along with the rest of the country, restaurants in the State, particularly in Guwahati, reported shortage of commercial cylinders after the government decided to stop bottling of commercial cylinders to ensure that supply to domestic consumers is not disrupted.

“All public sector OMCs shall ensure that LPG so procured is supplied/ marketed solely to consumers of domestic LPG only,” stated an order issued by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas on March 9.

IOC officials here confirmed that bottling of commercial LPG and supply to distributors has been stopped to prioritize domestic LPG supply. “Commercial LPG production is on hold since yesterday, but domestic production in continuing,” they said.

Supplies will be made to essential non-domestic sectors such as hospitals, educational institutions, etc, as per requirement.

For LPG supply to other non-domestic sectors, a committee of three executive directors of oil marketing companies has been constituted to review the representations and prioritize the LPG supply. Submissions can be made to them, but officials admitted that since the non-domestic LPG supply depends on the availability of imported products, the committee may not be able to address every grievance.

In Guwahati, restaurant owners said they are running out of LPG stock and there could be a big “hue and cry” in the next four to five days.

“The rationing was done without any public notice and information to stakeholders. There is already a surge in online sale, indicating that restaurants are not taking dine-in orders. The situation is very serious, unless alternative energy is arranged, it will be difficult for restaurants, particularly Indian cuisine-based restaurants to continue for too long,” a representative of the restaurant association said, adding that electric kitchens like those in pizza outlets will not be affected much.

Closure of restaurants could lead to fallouts like default in bank loan re-payments and job losses. Some restaurants are scurrying to arrange alternative energy sources.

Industry sources also said the situation could lead to a rise in food prices.

Food business in Upper Assam is likely to be impacted less due to the availability of piped gas.