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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.

Firm ‘thumbs down’ by commuters, groups

Mumbai: The Indian Railways’ purported plans to retrofit automatic doors in all suburban local trains has encountered a firm ‘nyet’ from both the harried commuters and passengers’ organisations.

 

The proposal was reiterated by Central Railway Chief PRO Swapnil Nila at his media briefing on Monday, hours after the freak tragedy in which several commuters fell from two zooming locals in opposite directions, killing four, plus injuring 9 others.

 

Nila said that the railways has taken the decision on automatic opening-closing doors to prevent recurrence of similar mishaps, especially among footboard travellers.

 

Reacting sharply, Rail Yatri Parishad (RYP) President Subhash Gupta said that the CR official is deliberately ‘misguiding’ Mumbaikars as the Railway Minister has already announced that all suburban local trains in Mumbai will be converted to air-conditioned.

 

“Then where is the question of retrofitting these local trains with automatic doors and what purpose will be served? The CR CPRO is misleading the people instead of making any concrete suggestions,” Gupta told The Perfect Voice.

 

Thane Railway Pravasi Sanstha (TRRPS) President Nandkumar D. Deshmukh expressed doubts over the proposal, and said that “automatic doors are feasible only for AC trains”.

 

“The Railway Board members and other bigwigs must commute in Mumbai trains for a few days to understand the commuters’ hazards, plus this idea has flopped once. Unfortunately, the IR is still mired in archaic rules that date back to 1853 (when the country’s first railway started on Mumbai-Thane route),” Deshmukh told The Perfect Voice.

 

Gupta said instead of resolving the pressing need to increase the carrying capacity and train frequency, “such an idea of automatic doors will actually derail both”.

 

On an average, a suburban train halts barely 25 seconds at each station, people jump off or inside, even before it fully stops.

 

“If automatic doors are fitted, the train will need to fully stop, then the doors will open, the commuters will rush out or inside, wait till all the humans are properly accommodated, the automatic doors will shut, then the train can roll. This can take almost 90-100 seconds. This in turn will hugely disturb the train schedules and frequency cannot be increased,” explained Gupta.

 

Regular suburban commuters like Kiran V., Radhika Pawar, Rajesh Shah and Pradeep Menon rubbished the automatic doors plans as downright ludicrous and impractical – echoing the sentiments of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena President Raj Thackeray on the issue.

 

“With all doors open, people get suffocated in the jam-packed trains… Imagine the situation when the doors shut… The government will need to provide oxygen cylinders inside the coaches,” said Menon sarcastically.

 

Women commuters Kiran and Radhika said the automatic doors could provide ‘an extra degree of safety in ladies compartment’, so they can avoid molesters, stone-pelters, chain-mobile-bag snatchers or other pests, “but the stifling conditions will still remain”.

 

On the other hand, Shah feels that instead of frittering resources on grandiose projects like the Bullet Train, the government should replace all local trains with air-conditioned coaches and reduce the ticket rates besides increasing  the frequency of trains.

 

‘Save your life, not your job’

Thane: It was on January 3, 2025 that a professional baby-sitter Snehal Kanhaiya Ratate’s life changed – after she got jostled out of a packed ladies’ local train compartment at Dahisar. She suffered considerable head injuries, cuts and bruises, needing expensive treatment for nearly three months. 


At that time, her older sisters Manali Joshi, Priyanka and her husband Kishore Gowale, and others cared for her - and she survived, but lost her well-paying job.


“The Borivali-Virar train was jammed. I had barely a couple of fingers on the handle bar. As the train entered Dahisar, there was an abrupt surge of commuters, I lost my grip, and crashed violently on the platform from the moving train,” Snehal Ratate, 27, recalling the ordeal with a shudder.


Her advice to Mumbaikars: “Avoid hanging out from crowded trains… Remember, you can get the next train or a new job, but not your life…”

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