The Sudha plant remained closed for the third consecutive day and milk supply across the city was erratic, spoiling residents' morning tea and festivities.

Operations and normal supply are expected to resume at the Phulwarisharif plant from Friday at the most.

A total of 1,200 Sudha booths and grocery stores in Patna receive supply from the Phulwarisharif plant but delay in arrival of milk vans from across districts sent the system haywire on Wednesday. The grocery stores did not receive any new stock and the dairy could supply milk to only few booths and that too late.

Kidwaipuri resident Ravibhushan Pandey visited a Sudha milk parlour thrice till 11am on Wednesday but returned empty-handed every time.

"This is the third time I am at the Sudha parlour since morning," he said at 11am. "I did not even get my morning tea today (Wednesday)."

Limited stock in the market flew off shelves in no time.

Chhotu, a salesman at the Fraser Road Sudha booth, said he was supplied 950 litres but the stock was exhausted within two hours.

"On Tuesday, my stock was finished within an hour," he said. "The grocery stores are not being supplied any milk from the dairy since Tuesday because of which whole of Patna is dependent on the Sudha booths. Besides, we are not getting milk according to the requirement. At present, we are getting deliveries just in the morning but usually another stock reaches in the evenings too."

But why are residents like Pandey not getting their morning share of cuppa. Chhotu said on usual days, deliveries reach the booths and grocery stores by 4am but the past few days, limited stocks are now reaching at 9 in the morning.

Sudha Dairy, the main milk and milk products supplier of the city, supplies 2.5 lakh litres of milk from its Phulwarisharif unit but the process was disrupted since Tuesday after water entered the plant on Monday.

Monday, milk supply was not a problem as the morning supplies had been released before water accumulated on the campus. Then it stopped and has remained so on Wednesday.

The result - residents and shop owners are feeling the pinch.

Virmani Kumar, a grocery store owner who sells Sudha milk on Ashiana-Digha Road, said he did not get any supply on Wednesday. "On Tuesday, Sudha officials assured me of sending fresh supplies but when I called them up on Wednesday, I found their cellphones switched off," he said. "The Sudha officials are not taking calls from us now."

Vivek Kumar Jha, a 26-year-old resident of the same area, said the Sudha parlour in the locality also did not supply milk till 2pm.

Dentist Akbar Khan also returned thrice from the Fraser Road Sudha parlour without any milk.

"Wednesday is the second day of Bakri Id celebrations. Early in the day when I visited the milk parlour twice, the salesman told me they were waiting for supply. When I went the third time, they told me milk arrived late and was sold within hours. It's completely ridiculous," he grumbled.

"The government should address the waterlogging problem in the Phulwarisharif area. Why hasn't been the water flushed out from the Sudha Dairy campus for three days?"

Ramnagri homemaker Manorama Prasad ended up cursing the dairy failure. "I ended up purchasing two litres of Tetra pack milk for Rs 60 a litre. Who will pay for the extra money which I have been spending for past two days," she fumed.

The Sudha officials claimed that water was being flushed out from the dairy campus and the administration also stepped in on Wednesday.

"The water level has come down by two inches but even now there is three-feet water in the campus. If the water level comes down by one feet by Wednesday night, we will start operations on Thursday," said Sudha Dairy managing director Sudhir Kumar Singh. "But going by the situation now, we can only say that we would be able to resume operation by Thursday or the day after."

Singh also clarified that the problem would persist on Thursday even if the plant starts working as milk supply from the local dairy would resume only a day after it becomes functional.