The price of auto LPG rose by ₹8 a litre on Friday, the second increase in recent days, taking the total hike over eight days to ₹13 a litre.

The price now stands at ₹70.68 a litre.

As fuel prices climb, supply has tightened. Autorickshaws queued for six to seven hours outside LPG stations for refills. With so many vehicles tied up at stations, fewer autos were on the roads, forcing commuters on several routes to wait during peak hours.

“This back-to-back rise in LPG price has left almost all autorickshaw owners and operators helpless. We don’t know how to cope with this assault,” said Arfin Hussain, a driver on the Dharmatala-
Lohapool route. “Some of us will probably have to withdraw our fleet.”

The hike drew a sharp reaction from chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

“The price of domestic and commercial LPG cylinders has risen sharply since the days when Manmohan Singh was Prime Minister. Even the price of LPG has risen, and there will be a cumulative impact on the price of all items,” she said on Friday.

“Let Modiji tackle this impact and then he can consider conquering Bengal,” she added.

A section of the Trinamool Congress leadership overseeing multiple autorickshaw routes said they were not yet considering a fare hike, citing the upcoming
elections.

Fares on a few routes had earlier gone up by ₹2 to ₹3 when auto LPG prices rose by ₹5 a litre. On the Chingrighata-SDF route, the fare increased by ₹3, from ₹15 to ₹18. On the Swasthya Bhavan-Chingrighata route, it rose by ₹2 to ₹17. Commuters on the Garia-Baruipur and Sonarpur-Garia routes said fares there had also gone up by ₹3.

“We have instructed auto operators on different routes that fares shouldn’t increase. The party doesn’t support the idea of a fare hike now,” said Sanjib Banerjee, a Trinamool leader overseeing routes covering Gariahat, Golpark and Ruby.

Some drivers, however, said that without a fare revision, they would be forced to reduce their daily payments to vehicle owners. An autorickshaw driver typically pays between ₹300 and ₹400 a day to the owner, depending on the route, before calculating take-home earnings.

In some cases, owners bear the fuel cost; in others, drivers do.

“We will press for a cut of ₹100 from the amount we pay to owners to cope with the LPG price hike,” said Asit Das, a driver on the Sovabazar-Ultadanga route. “It would be difficult to support our families otherwise.”

The LPG price hike and the resulting drop in autorickshaw availability come at a time when private bus operators said their numbers will start dwindling within a week, as police and the transport department begin requisitioning vehicles for the Assembly elections.

“Autorickshaws will remain the chief mode of last-mile connectivity in the absence of buses. The situation could become worse in the coming days,” said Tapan Bandyopadhyay, general secretary of the joint council of bus syndicates.