The largest supplier of domestic LPG in Bengal has asked distributors to accept manual refill bookings to mitigate the crisis.

“Our server crashed because of a huge surge in calls requesting a refill, most of it driven by panic,” a senior official of Indian Oil, which serves around 50 lakh customers in Calcutta and North and South 24-Parganas, told The Telegraph on Thursday.

“Hundreds of people are lining up at the distribution points because they cannot book by phone. To alleviate their ordeal, we have asked the distributors to accept manual bookings. But the 25-day gap between two bookings must be adhered to.”

Industry sources said manual bookings had stopped around a decade ago.

Like the day before, distribution agencies on Thursday saw long queues of customers who had been unable to book a refill or check the status of their booking. With the servers down, the personnel at the counters could not provide much assistance, either.

Manual bookings will be accepted from Friday, Ramkrishna Chakraborty, secretary of the Indane LPG Distributors’ Association, said, confirming having received the Indian Oil communication.

“The Indane (flagship LPG brand of Indian Oil) server was down for most of Thursday. Starting Friday, our counter staff will accept manual bookings. We hope it will bring relief to consumers,” Chakraborty said.

But unless the servers are up and running, even manual bookings won’t ensure the delivery of cylinders, distributors said.

“Our staff will write down the details of the customer. However, it must be tallied with the database in the system for authentication,” a distributor in south Calcutta said.

“We can do so only when the system is active. On Thursday, the system was erratic, working only in patches.”

Several housing complexes that provide piped LPG to residents have regulated consumption.

Urbana, near Ruby, and Hiland Park, further south along EM Bypass, are among them.

In a notice to residents, the Urbana Association of Apartment Owners said that “on and from Wednesday, 11th March, 2026, till further instructions, all ‘Gas-supplies’ will be stopped/ suspended from 2pm to 5pm and 10pm to 4am”.

At Hiland Park, the supply will be suspended from 11pm to 4am, a member of the residents’ association said.

Outside the gated communities, the anxiety was deeper. Many people spent hours outside distribution points, mostly in vain.

As almost always in a crisis, the underprivileged were hit the hardest.

Ajay Shaw, a plumber from Mukundapur, waited nearly four hours outside a distribution point in Survey Park. The LPG cylinder in his kitchen is empty. He is scraping by with a mini (4kg) cylinder he bought on Thursday for ₹600, almost double the market rate a day earlier.

“For me, no work for a day means no pay. I waited four hours, only to learn that the agency couldn’t do anything. The system is malfunctioning,” he said.

Shaw lives with his wife, parents and two children. He had tried several times to book a refill over his phone but failed.

The demand for induction cookers, an alternative to cooking gas, has soared.

Biplab Mondal, manager at Khosla Electronics in Dalhousie, said the store had sold around 30 induction cookers by 6pm on Thursday.

“Earlier, we used to sell around 50 in an entire month,” he said.

Commercial LPG

The curbs on the supply of commercial LPG outside hospitals and schools have left many eateries struggling to stay open. Some have already shut down.

Badsha, a popular fast food centre at Sulekha near the Jadavpur 8B bus stand, has downed its shutters.

A couple of eateries along Dacres Lane, the famed eat street in “Office Para”, have closed, too.

A continental restaurant on Ho Chi Minh Sarani and a couple of north-Indian joints in Salt Lake are on the brink of shutting down.

Many other restaurants have tweaked their operations to stay afloat. The Hindustan Park outlet of Yellow Turtle will remain open to diners only four days a week — Friday to Monday.

Most restaurants that are still serving have abridged their menus. Many have transitioned to electric cooking.

“We have moved a part of our cooking to a central kitchen in Rajarhat, which runs on electricity,” said Kabir Azhar, director of Aminia Restaurants, which has 10 branches in and around Calcutta.

“The side dishes are being prepared at the central kitchen and delivered to the outlets. The biryani is still being prepared at the branches with LPG.”

Oasis, on Park Street, has shifted to electric induction for most of its dishes.

“We have curtailed LPG consumption by around 80 per cent,” said Pratap Daryanani, the owner.

Additional reporting by Samarpita Banerjee