Chennai, March 10 Restaurants across Tamil Nadu are facing a bleak future, as existing stock is expected to last only for one or two days due to a lack of commercial LPG cylinder supply amid the West Asia conflict, hotel owners said on Tuesday.
Some hotels and restaurants have already reduced the number of food items offered in order to reduce LPG usage, officials said.
"This is like a second COVID-19-enforced lockdown for us. We are reducing the use of LPG cylinders. We have reduced the number of food items. For dosa, tea, or coffee, the stove needs a continuous supply of LPG. We have reduced the number of items now and are only providing food in limited quantities," the chairman of a popular restaurant chain told
In response to a query, he said, "We expect to operate for one or two days with the existing stock. If there is no supply of commercial LPG cylinders, we have no other option but to close down operations. This is a situation similar to the COVID-19 lockdown."
Meanwhile, another popular hotel in Chennai, Sri Ananda, displayed on its menu on Tuesday that due to a lack of supply of commercial LPG cylinders, the number of food items offered has been largely reduced.
"For the past few days, we were operating without any crisis in LPG cylinder supply. Today, we have reduced the list of food items offered to reduce the use of LPG cylinders. We have stopped preparing fried rice, side dishes, and appam, as these items require more LPG. We don't know how long this (supply crisis) will continue," an official said.
The Tamil Nadu Hotels Association, a body representing hotels and restaurants in the State, appealed to the Centre on March 7 to withdraw its order instructing oil marketing companies to suspend commercial LPG cylinders.
On March 6, the government invoked emergency powers to direct oil refineries to ramp up LPG production in order to increase the availability of domestic cooking gas and avoid potential disruptions due to the widening West Asia conflict.
On March 7, the prices of domestic LPG and commercial cylinders were hiked by Rs 60 and Rs 114.5, respectively.