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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.

Controlling overcrowding key on local trains

Mumbai: Controlling overcrowding is the key to avoid accidents on Mumbai suburban local trains and in an affidavit filed in the Bombay High Court last year, the Central Railway (CR) had sought the court’s help to direct the Maharashtra government to introduce staggered timing for offices as one of the measures to do so.


During hearing on a PIL regarding accidents on Mumbai’s suburban railway network last year, the then Chief Justice of Bombay High Court Upadhyaya had said, “I feel ashamed. The manner in which passengers in local trains are made to commute is unacceptable.” He had also directed the railway authorities to file affidavit outlining concrete measures to mitigate accidents and emphasized the need for a fundamental shift in the Railways’ approach towards passenger safety, stressing that the current situation demands immediate rectification.


The grim situation of accidents on suburban railways came forth in the affidavit. While the Central Railway (CR) has 1,810 suburban services that carry 40 lakh passengers, a whopping 29,321 people have lost lives in various accidents on the CR between 2005 and July 2024. According to CPRO Dr Swapnil Dhanraj Nila, “Existing passenger carrying capacity is almost fully utilised and there is hardly any scope for increasing it further (to control overcrowding) till the basic infrastructure is expanded.”


Reason of deaths

The affidavit filed by the CR said that most of the accidents were due to crossing the tracks, some were due to falling off crowded trains, while some were due to passengers being knocked down by poles adjacent to railway tracks and even gaps between platform and train footboards, among other reasons. The affidavit stated that in 2009, there were 1,782 deaths and 1,614 people were injured, which came down to 1,221 deaths and 938 injuries in 2023.


The CR had also sought the assistance of the court to direct the Maharashtra government to introduce staggered timing for offices. It had also sought the removal of some encroachments along the railway tracks, especially at Parsik Tunnel, stopping of unauthorised sand mining at Mumbra creek and a parallel road between Thane and Kalyan.


Experts say

Transport expert Sudhir Badami points at yet another issue – “making attractive mass transit system affordable.”


“The railway board has now decided that all rakes under manufacturing for Mumbai Suburban network will have automatic door closer facility. However, controlling the overcrowding is the key and that would need policy intervention and holistic approach towards resolving the transport issues of the region,” he said.


15 coach locals

MP from Kalyan Lok Sabha constituency Dr Shrikant Shinde, who visited the injured commuters at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Hospital at Kalwa said that increasing the capacity of transporting more number of passengers quickly is the need of the hour. “Locals need to be made less crowded. Fast locals need to be started between Diwa and CSMT for that. Also, starting the fifth and sixth lines up to CSMT at earliest is must. Raising the number of 15-car rakes during peak hours too can be a very effective way to tackle the issue of overcrowding in the locals,” the MP said.

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