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By:

Quaid Najmi

4 January 2025 at 3:26:24 pm

Commercial LPG 'evaporates' in Maharashtra

Mumbai : The short supply of commercial LPG cylinders turned ‘grim’ on Wednesday as hundreds of small and medium eateries – on whom the ordinary working Mumbaikars depend on for daily meals – shut down or drastically trimmed menus, on Wednesday.   With an estimated 50,000-plus hotels, restaurants and small food joints, the crunch is beginning to be felt severely, said Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Association of India (FHRAI) vice-president and Hotel and Restaurant Association Western...

Commercial LPG 'evaporates' in Maharashtra

Mumbai : The short supply of commercial LPG cylinders turned ‘grim’ on Wednesday as hundreds of small and medium eateries – on whom the ordinary working Mumbaikars depend on for daily meals – shut down or drastically trimmed menus, on Wednesday.   With an estimated 50,000-plus hotels, restaurants and small food joints, the crunch is beginning to be felt severely, said Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Association of India (FHRAI) vice-president and Hotel and Restaurant Association Western India (HRAWI) spokesperson Pradeep Shetty.   “We are in continuous touch with the concerned authorities, but the situation is very gloomy. There is no response from the Centre or the Ministry of Petroleum on when the situation will ease. We fear that more than 50 pc of all eateries in Mumbai will soon down the shutters. The same will apply to the rest of the state and many other parts of India,” Shetty told  ‘ The Perfect Voice’ .   The shortage of commercial LPG has badly affected multiple sectors, including the hospitality and food industries, mass private or commercial kitchens and even the laundry businesses, industry players said.   At their wits' ends, many restaurateurs resorted to the reliable old iron ‘chulhas’ (stoves) fired by either coal or wood - the prices of which have also shot up and result in pollution - besides delaying the cooking.   Anticipating a larger crisis, even domestic LPG consumers besieged retail dealers in Mumbai, Pune, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Ratnagiri, Kolhapur, Akola, Nagpur to book their second cylinder, with snaky queues in many cities. The stark reality of the 12-days old Gulf war with the disturbed supplies has hit the people and industries in the food supply chains that feed crores daily.   “The ordinary folks leave home in the morning after breakfast, then they rely on the others in the food chain for their lunch or dinner. Many street retailers have also shut down temporarily,” said Shetty.   Dry Snacks A quick survey of some suburban ‘khau gullies’ today revealed that the available items were mostly cold sandwiches, fruit or vegetable salads, cold desserts or ice-creams, cold beverages and packed snacks. Few offered the regular ‘piping hot’ foods that need elaborate cooking, or charging higher than normal menu rates, and even the app-based food delivery system was impacted.   Many people were seen gloomily munching on colorful packets of dry snacks like chips, chivda, sev, gathiya, samosas, etc. for lunch, the usually cheerful ‘chai ki dukaans’ suddenly disappeared from their corners, though soft drinks and tetrapaks were available.   Delay, Scarcity  Maharashtra LPG Dealers Association President Deepak Singh yesterday conceded to “some delays due to supply shortages” of commercial cylinders, but assured that there is no scarcity of domestic cylinders.   “We are adhering to the Centre’s guidelines for a 25 days booking period between 2 cylinders (domestic). The issue is with commercial cylinders but even those are available though less in numbers,” said Singh, adding that guidelines to prioritise educational institutions, hospitals, and defence, are being followed, but others are also getting their supplies.   Despite the assurances, Shetty said that the current status is extremely serious since the past week and the intermittent disruptions have escalated into a near-total halt in supplies in many regions since Monday.   Adding to the dismal picture is the likelihood of local hoteliers associations in different cities like Pune, Palghar, Nagpur, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, and more resorting to tough measures from Thursday, including temporary shutdown of their outlets, which have run out of gas stocks.

Choked JNPA’s relief for containers


Mumbai: The Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (JNPA) – which handles nearly 50 pc of India’s container traffic – announced a slew of measures bringing relief to exporters whose containers remain stuck, choking up the port in the wake of the Gulf War.

 

JNPA Chairperson Gaurav Daya along with top officers and stakeholders are monitoring the situation 24x7 and has given relief by way of 100 pc waivers of ground rent/dwell-time charges.

 

An estimated 3,250-plus containers bound for different countries are stuck at the JNPA, rattling exporters, particularly those laden with perishable food stuffs, medicines and other emergency supplies, worth thousands of crores of rupees.

 

The waiver charges shall be applicable for 15 days, from midnight of Feb. 28 to midnight of March 14 for all containers lying inside the JNPA Terminals from Feb. 2 or those which had entered its gates till 0700 hrs of March 8, as per a circular issued by JNPA GM (Traffic) Girish Thomas.

 

“All terminal operators shall waive 80 per cent of the reefer plug in charges up to 15 days to those stranded reefer containers loaded with perishable goods, which were tying inside from Feb. 28 or those or those which had gated in till 0700 hours on March 8 only,” the circular reads. 

 

The JNPA comprises five container terminals – the Nhava Sheva Free Port Terminal (NSFT), Nhava Sheva International Container Terminal (NSICT), Nhava Sheva India Gateway Terminal (NSIGT), Bharat Mumbai Container Terminal (BMCT), and GTI-APM Terminal (APM). They are operated by a mix of Indian and global port operators, including DP World, PSA International, APM Terminals, and JM Baxi.

 

The JNPA said it will provide all necessary help and relief as per directives of the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways (MoPS&W).

 

Prior to this, the Port and Terminal Operators had already extended relief to the EXIM community which included a facility to store stranded containers in the terminals container yards till the cargo is shipped out.

 

It engaged in constant consultation with the Customs authorities to facilitate storage of laden containers from other ports destined to the Middle East, as temporary transshipment cargo at JNPA terminals, besides providing additional storage area to the terminals for stacking such extra cargo.

 


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