Over a 100 hotels in Kochi city in Kerala have downed shutters as the LPG crisis deepens in the wake of the ongoing West Asia conflict, triggering a cascading effect across multiple sectors.
Even eateries that remain open have pared down menus to avoid a complete shutdown, restricting certain items to specific time slots. Several hotel brands have issued social media advisories urging customers to cooperate. Tawa-based dishes have virtually disappeared, given the high LPG consumption the appliance entails.
Due to cooking gas shortage, firewood stoves are being used at Samridhi@Kochi, a budget eatery jointly run by the Kochi Corporation and the Ernakulam District Mission of Kudumbashree as part of a hunger-free initiative. Kochi Mayor V.K. Minimol lights a fire in the stove on Friday. | Photo Credit: Thulasi Kakkat
“Hotels across the State have not received a single load in the past three days, with the government strictly rationing commercial cylinders to prioritise domestic consumers. In Ernakulam alone, hotels consume around 25,000 to 30,000 cylinders a month,” said T.J. Manoharan, State secretary of the Kerala Hotel and Restaurant Association.
Samridhi@Kochi, a chain of budget eateries run jointly by the Kochi Corporation and Kudumbashree Mission, has switched to firewood stoves after exhausting its last lot of 30-odd cylinders.
