Domestic LPG supply eases in Nashik district, bookings drop & refill waiting period shrinks too

Nashik: The domestic LPG situation in the district has started to show signs of easing with the waiting period for refill, as well as new bookings, shrinking considerably over the last few days.In the Nashik territory — comprising Nashik, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Jalna districts — total outstanding refill bookings that had surged to 1.67 lakh have now reduced to 1.30 lakh. "The drop is significant, as the three Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) together usually record around 67,000 bookings per day. Almost every distributor had reported a two- to three-fold rise in daily bookings at the peak of crisis. At present, daily bookings are slightly above 70,000, while deliveries have gone up to around 75,000 cylinders per day," a senior officer said.Officials said the massive backlog had put heavy pressure on the system, prompting a 20% increase in delivery capacity. "There is no shortage of domestic LPG cylinders. The issue arose because people rushed to refill empty cylinders, leading to a demand spike, confusion among consumers and delays for genuine users," the officer said, adding, "Outstanding deliveries have fallen from 1.67 lakh to 1.30 lakh. Consequently, the waiting period has improved, coming down from eight days to under five days."One of the gas distributor at Nashik Road said, "Since the ministry has now introduced a minimum of 25-day gap between two bookings of the cylinder in urban areas, the number of daily bookings at my distributorship that had spiked to 4,500 per day has slid down to 1,200 as against the regular booking of 1,000 per day. The delivery is steady at above 1,300 per day."Residents continued to report mixed experiences. Vaishali Jadhav from Ambad received her refill within two days after booking on Wednesday, but her relatives in Nashik Road, who booked on Tuesday, are still waiting for their cylinder.District supply officials have seized 10 domestic cylinders being used illegally in rural restaurants. "Five cylinders were seized from hotels in Igatpuri and another five in Dindori. Seventeen teams are inspecting hotels and commercial establishments to check misuse of domestic LPG," an official said.