CHENNAI: The LPG domestic consumers, going through a tough time in the last 80-odd days due to the shortage induced by the West Asia war, can heave a sigh of relief now, as the supply has returned to normalcy in most parts of the state, particularly in Chennai.
The consumers in the city are now receiving cylinders within three to four days of booking, while those in suburbans are getting deliveries within five to six days. In rural areas, the waiting period has come down to less than seven days.
The data maintained by the Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection department, which has been monitoring the LPG supplies across Tamil Nadu, reveal the overall backlog of cylinder requests has fallen sharply from 38 lakh on March 28 to 14.2 lakh on June 15.
“The average daily LPG bookings fell from 8.2 lakh during March 28 to 31 to 3.7 lakh as of June 15, indicating a significant drop in demand pressure. The daily supplies range from 4.2 lakh to 4.5 lakh cylinders. Since supplies now exceed bookings, the backlog is expected to reduce substantially within the next 10 to 15 days. Around 98% of normal supply has been resumed,” an official said.
The supply of domestic LPG cylinders was severely disrupted across the state from the fourth week of March due to the West Asia conflict, forcing consumers to wait nearly 20 days after booking for delivery. Since the Union government mandates a minimum gap of 25 days between bookings, a large number of consumers are forced to wait 45 to 50 days to replace their cylinders.
As a result, many consumers were compelled to visit distributor offices with empty cylinders and spend four to five hours seeking replacements. Among them, single cylinder holders were worst affected.
Sources in oil marketing companies attributed the improvement to uninterrupted bulk LPG supplies, enhanced capacity at bottling plants, micro-level supply management, and close monitoring at the distributor level. “The state government assigned nodal officers to monitor two distributor agencies each and ensure there were no disruptions in domestic LPG supplies,” an official said.
However, the officials said the restrictions on new connections and the conversion of single-cylinder connections to double-cylinder connections will continue for now. “Tamil Nadu already has the highest number of double-cylinder connections in the country, and additional connections cannot be provided immediately,” an official said.
S Radhakrishnan, a resident of Kilpauk, said, “After booking the cylinder, I received the payment confirmation link the same day. An OTP was sent on the third day, and the cylinder was delivered on the same day. For the past two months, I had been visiting the agency repeatedly after booking to remind them about delivery.”
Another consumer, S Sivarajan of Korattur, said he too received his cylinder within six days this month as against 15 days in April and May. “Over the last two months, I had to exchange my cylinder directly at the agency office. This month, however, it was delivered at my doorstep,” he said.
Like Chennai, consumers in Coimbatore also are receiving cylinders within five days. S Archana, a homemaker from PN Pudur, booked a cylinder on June 8 and got it delivered on June 12. In April, she recalled, the delivery took more than 20 days.
K Balamurugan, a cylinder supplier at a gas agency in Vadavalli, said if a consumer books a cylinder, they will get the booking receipt within two or three days. “If we get the receipt, we will deliver the cylinder to the consumer the next day. Consumers can get the cylinder within four days at most. The situation is not like it was during the cylinder crisis period,” he said.
Tamil Nadu has 2.23 crore domestic LPG connections, including around 41,000 beneficiaries under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY). Beneficiaries under the scheme receive a subsidy of Rs 300 per 14.2-kg cylinder for up to four refills a year.
(With input from N Dhamotharan @ Coimbatore, Jeyalakshmi Ramanujam @ Madurai)