More Calcuttans were able to book domestic LPG cylinders on Sunday as oil and gas companies urged customers not to panic.
“Due to high/repeated refill booking calls, temporary delay in response may occur. We are strengthening our system, don’t panic…. We will make Home Delivery. Avoid visiting distributorship & save fuel,” said a message from Indane, the flagship LPG brand of Indian Oil and the largest supplier of cooking gas to
Calcutta.
Sources in Indian Oil said the worst was over.
“We have expanded the bandwidth of our servers. They can handle an increased volume of calls simultaneously. Things will become smoother in the coming days. Some glitches may remain, but they will be sorted out,” said one of them.
The government confirmed on Saturday that two Indian-flagged LPG carriers had crossed the Strait of Hormuz and were expected to reach ports in Gujarat early this week.
In Calcutta, many distributors were closed on Sunday. But some deliveries still happened.
A senior citizen in Behala had been trying, in vain, to book a refill by calling a Hindustan Petroleum helpline.
The number remained unresponsive for the past four days. A missed call at the number is needed to book a refill. After a couple of rings, the call gets disconnected automatically.
On Sunday, it finally rang. Soon after the call got disconnected, he got a message that the last cylinder was delivered on February 19 and the next refill can be booked only after March 17.
The Centre has imposed a 25-day cap between the delivery of one cylinder and booking the next refill.
Ramkrishna Chakraborty, secretary of the Indane LPG Distributors’ Association, said: “Many customers could book refills on Sunday. A majority of those who could not had received a cylinder less than 25 days ago.”
The supply of commercial cylinders, however, was still far less than the demand.
“I could only supply to a hospital. Since it was a Sunday, the schools were shut,” said a distributor in the northern fringes of Calcutta.
Another distributor in south Calcutta said only 20% of the demand for commercial cylinders was being met at the moment.
Deactivation
LPG connections are deactivated or temporarily blocked by oil marketing companies if they are not used to book a cylinder for an extended period, typically more than six months.
Distributors said the rule is often not followed rigorously. But since Saturday, the companies have started enforcing the norm.
“Many customers have an old connection at an address they don’t live at. They are now trying to book a refill through that consumer number and take it to their current home. The oil companies want to stop this practice,” said a distributor.
“For now, the accounts from which no booking
has been made for nine months are being deactivated. Consumers must complete an e-KYC done for reactivation,” he said.