Available stock of commercial LPG being supplied to priority sectors in Himachal: Indian Oil

Shimla: While the disruption in the supply of LPG cylinders amid the West Asia crisis has led to a shortage for commercial and industrial consumers in Himachal Pradesh, Indian Oil Corporation officials on Thursday said the domestic supply remains unaffected.

According to the officials, commercial cylinders are being supplied to hospitals and educational institutions from the dealers' available stock.

"There is no shortage of domestic LPG cylinders in the state, and regular supply has been maintained. Commercial consumers are facing a shortage, but priority sectors like hospitals and educational institutions are being supplied from the stock available with the dealers," said Mohammad Amid, Divisional LPG sales head, Indian Oil Corporation.

When asked how long the shortage of commercial cylinders will continue, he said that the Ministry of Petroleum is holding a high-level meeting to gauge the demand for commercial cylinders from various sectors to regulate the supply.

There are around 55,000 commercial connections in the state, he added.

He further said that the supply of domestic liquified petroleum gas (LPG) cylinders from Baddi, Una and Jalandhar bottling plants is continuing as before, and all 155 distributors have sufficient stocks.

“We appeal to domestic consumers not to go for panic refill booking”, the official said.

Mohammad Amid said 19 kg commercial cylinders are being supplied to hospitals and educational institutions, but the supply of 47 kg and 425 kg commercial cylinders for industry has been disrupted.

Keeping in view the demand from the tourism sector, distributors have been asked to provide 19 kg commercial cylinders from the available stock of 12,000 cylinders, he said.

He said hotel and restaurant owners can take domestic connections under their name to feed their staff members. The distributors are flooded with calls for LPG cylinder bookings, but there has been no supply of commercial cylinders for the past three days, said Sabir, an employee of a gas company.

In view of the ongoing war in West Asia, the bottling of commercial cylinders has stopped, an owner of a gas agency in Shimla told the PTI. Arun Bhatia, who has been running a restaurant at Panthaghati on the outskirts of Shimla for the past 25 years, said that the stoppage of commercial cylinder supply has created acute shortages, severely affecting the businesses.

He appealed to the government to strike a balance between the supply of commercial and domestic cylinders.

Shyam Sharma, manager of Shere-Punjab Dhaba, said the situation is not good; commercial cylinders have not been supplied for the past three days.

“Tourists are coming, and staff also need to eat, so we are facing problems. If the situation does not improve in the coming days, dhabas would be forced to shut down,” he added. In a statement issued on Wednesday, Chief Secretary Sanjay Gupta had said that Himachal Pradesh presently has sufficient stock of petrol, diesel and domestic cooking gas, and there is no need for the public to worry.

Around 15,000 commercial LPG cylinders were currently available in the state and were being supplied to hotels, restaurants and other institutions as required, he had said.

Earlier, the Federation of Himachal Hotels and Restaurant Association (FOHHRA) urged the Union government to take necessary steps to ensure adequate and uninterrupted supply of commercial LPG cylinders across the country, particularly to tourism-oriented states such as Himachal Pradesh.