LPG shortage forces Indian eateries to coal grills as Middle East crisis disrupts supply

Across India's cities, restaurant owners are making a choice they never expected to face: switch to coal and wood fires, close the doors, or pay double the normal price for cooking gas on the black market. The Middle East crisis has fractured the petroleum supply chains that feed India's kitchens, and the shortage is no longer theoretical. It is happening now, in Bengaluru and Pune, in Ahmedabad and Kolkata, in the tea stalls and wedding halls that depend on liquefied petroleum gas to function.

In Bengaluru's Kengeri neighborhood, Ramesh Chandra runs a hotel that normally consumes two to four cylinders a day. He now has four or five left. The oil companies have stretched the waiting period from 21 to 25 days, which means he is rationing what little he has. "I will continue the operations till I run out," he said. "I'm also making efforts to get a supply of cylinders but I don't know whether I will open the hotel tomorrow." Across Karnataka, hotels have begun cutting their menus down to coffee and tea. Some have stopped opening altogether. The uncertainty is not temporary. It is the new operating condition.

In Pune, restaurants are improvising. Some have switched to electrical and induction cookers. Others have installed coal and wood grills to keep serving Maharashtrian and Punjabi food. According to Saili Jahagirdar, head of the Pune chapter of the National Restaurants Association of India, the industry is in transition. "They are working on reduced menus," she said. "Snacks centres or joints that cannot shift to electric are shut. It's a mix now." The word "mix" understates the chaos. Restaurants that cannot adapt are closing. Those that can are limping forward on alternative fuels.

The black market, which once offered a workaround, has dried up entirely. A restaurant owner in Pune purchased three commercial cylinders at double the normal rate three days before speaking to reporters. Within days, even that supply vanished. "There is no stock left at all in Pune," he said. "Some black marketing was going on before, but now nothing is left." In Ahmedabad, street vendors are scrambling through informal channels. A cylinder that cost Rs 1,800 or Rs 1,900 now commands Rs 2,500 to Rs 3,000. Some sellers are asking Rs 4,000. Magan Patidar, who runs a tea stall chain called Mahadev Rajwad, has watched prices climb beyond reason. In Kolkata, commercial cylinders have tripled in price, rising from Rs 1,600 to Rs 1,800 to between Rs 4,500 and Rs 5,000.

Gas agencies deny responsibility. A representative of Priya Gas in Ahmedabad blamed "panic booking" by desperate hotel owners. "Since the agencies are not receiving filled commercial stock from the firms or the government, there is simply no supply available to divert into a black market," he said. The agencies themselves have been forced to stop serving restaurants and hotels. But the explanation does not ease the pressure. Consumers trying to book cylinders online report that the booking system is not responding. Ram Kumar, a consumer from Ludhiana, asked the obvious question: "People say that the software is down, so what is the point of saying that there is no shortage of domestic cylinders?"

State governments have begun appealing to New Delhi. Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah wrote to the Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, warning that hotel and restaurant associations in Bengaluru could not procure commercial cylinders and that many establishments were considering temporary shutdowns. He noted that choultries, hostels, and event venues that rely on commercial LPG for food preparation were also facing uncertainty, particularly with scheduled social and community events. In Kolkata, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee blamed the Ministry of Petroleum for the crisis. "Gas supply should not be stopped," she said. "They need to think about people first. It is in the hands of the Centre. We want the Central government to take immediate action."

Distributors, caught between suppliers and angry consumers, are also demanding relief. Satender Singh, president of the LPG Distributors Association in Haryana, said the pressure on his members was unfair. "The LPG companies, state governments and consumers are holding distributors responsible," he said. "I would urge the LPG companies to increase supply." The Centre has already invoked the Essential Commodities Act, 1955, a move that signals the severity of the situation. But invoking a law does not create gas. The shortage persists. Restaurants continue to close. Prices on the black market continue to climb. And across the country, thousands of workers in food service are watching their employers struggle to stay open.