Consumers queue up in front of an LPG agency. File picture

March 22: All you will need is a laptop or a smartphone with Internet connection to avoid a queue for refilling your LPG cylinder.

LPG consumers in the city may not have to wait too long as Indian Oil Corporation is mulling to launch web booking facility for Guwahati soon.

The company has introduced the facility in Kokrajhar recently.

“We are contemplating introduction of web booking in the city soon. There is a likelihood of such a system being introduced some time after Bihu,” Jayanta Madhav, chief area manager, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd, here told The Telegraph.

“But as the market is unstable at present, we are not being able to meet the demand of the customers in terms of delivery. So given the situation, web booking will only make our task of delivering the cylinders all that more difficult.”

Shillong is the only other hill town in the Northeast where LPG consumers can book cylinders online.

If such a facility is introduced in a densely populated city like Guwahati, consumers can avoid the trouble of being part of a serpentine queue or do away with the “constantly busy” phones at the agency’s office for booking a refill. Given the over 12 lakh population with a majority having LPG connections, a gap between demand and supply of cylinders is no surprise.

On an average, the city requires about 10,000 cylinders everyday. Sources at Indian Oil Corporation Ltd said there was a daily shortage of about 2,000 refills.

“The average daily demand for cylinders in Guwahati is 9,600. However, for March till date, the supply on an average has been 7,800 cylinders per day. So, there is roughly a shortage of about 1,800 refills. But we are trying to overcome this crisis,” a source at Indian Oil Corporation Ltd’s marketing division said today.

Shortage of bulk LPG is one of the prime reasons for the gap between demand and supply.

“For Guwahati, the bulk for LPG production comes from our refineries at Haldia and Barauni. Of late, we have not received the supply to meet the city’s requirements,” the source said.

Indian Oil Corporation Ltd has 22 dealerships in the city.

The connections allotted to agencies, too, are on the rise given the pressure of the increasing population.

“We are allotting new connections keeping in mind the growing demand,” he added.

Customers, however, do not see a facility like online booking being introduced at the dealers’ end in the near future.

“Given the rampant hoarding and the subsequent sale of LPG cylinders in the black market, I fail to foresee a rosy picture in the near future. Booking a cylinder through Internet and receiving one at one’s doorstep on time is a distant dream in a growing city like Guwahati. Firstly, let the agencies keep their phone lines free for booking. Facilities like online and SMS booking can follow,” a senior citizen in Uzan Bazar said.