Bengaluru LPG crisis: Panic booking, visits to agencies by domestic users come down

Bengaluru: Customers who have booked LPG cylinders continue to wait for deliveries, although panic booking seems to have reduced. 

Consumers say Indane and Bharatgas are delivering cylinders relatively faster than HP. 

A DH found that compared to dozens of people visiting the gas agencies for both bookings and deliveries, the number has fallen to just 15-20 people at a given point in
time. 

The union government on Sunday said LPG cylinder bookings had fallen from 88.8 lakh to 77 lakh, the PTI reported. 

Lakshmi R, a customer at an Indane gas agency in RR Nagar, was one of the visitors on Monday. 

“There were disruptions initially. We did not get confirmation for our booking, but we did not have an issue with supply subsequently”.  

While some HP consumers received cylinders within two to three days of booking, some have not received them despite waiting for a week. 

Shrinidhi Athreya, one of them, said: “Our neighbour and we both have HP. They received their cylinder three days ago, but we have not, despite booking a day before them. The situation is not clear”.  

Roadside eateries

With both cooking oil and LPG prices rising, roadside eateries are facing a hard time.

Some have started raising their prices by Rs 5 to Rs 10, while others plan to wait for a few days. 

Arun Gowda, who sells egg rice on Mysuru Road, said, “Cooking oil rates have gone up, so have gas prices. I raised my price by Rs 5 per plate. Otherwise, I will suffer
losses.” 

Muniraju Swamy, a roadside vendor selling idli and rice items near Race Course Road, said: “We saw in the news that ships are coming to India with gas. So, we are hoping the situation will calm down. Hence, we have not increased the prices. If the crisis continues, we might increase”.