By Venkatachari Jagannathan
Chennai, March 10 (UNI) Tamil Nadu hotels and restaurants are mulling rationalisation of menu items, functioning time to tide over their energy crisis owing to the decision to stop supplies of commercial liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinders, officials of industry bodies said.
“It is as if another Covid shutdown is looming before us,” M.Venkada Subbu, President, Tamil Nadu Hotels Association, told UNI.
Supplies of commercial LPG cylinders have been stopped by the private and government companies following the continued war in the Middle East between the US-Israel on one side and Iran on the other.
Iran has warned of an attack on ships sailing the Strait of Hormuz and hence, transit of oil and gas tankers has stopped.
“With the given gas stock, we can manage for only two days. Perhaps by cutting down on the number of items to be cooked and other measures, the gas supply can be extended for four days,” Subbu said.
“If the hotels are shut down, then there will be a cascading effect. The hotels may become sick, and employees may not get their wages. Further, hotels are the largest consumers of agricultural produce. If we don’t procure, the farming community will be hit,” Subbu added.
On the option to go for wood fire, hoteliers said the government has banned on the grounds of air pollution and also workers are not willing to work with wood-fired stoves. “Switching over to electric stoves suddenly is not possible, as there will not be adequate supplies, and it would increase the power costs for the hotels. Hotels are yet to be given the facilities of industries,” he said.
“There will be peak hour charges for power. It will be too high and has to be passed on to the customers. For big outlets a minimum of 10 cylinders will be needed and for small outlets, it will be four cylinders per day,” M Ravi, President, Chennai Hotel Association, told UNI.
Ravi has also written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting an uninterrupted supply of commercial LPG cylinders to the food industry that caters to travellers, students, hospitals and others.
Hoteliers said the private LPG players stopped supplies two days back and the government-owned oil marketing companies too have stopped now.
Hoteliers say only 10 per cent of their clientele would come to restaurants for the pleasure of eating out and the vast majority of them are bachelors, staying guests and others who solely depend on them for food.
Not only hotels, even small caterers who cater to old people daily are in a fix.
“I have about 50-60 homes with old people who depend on my food. I can manage for a day. I am mulling on cutting down on the number of items. Perhaps look at other options like modern wood fire stoves,” a private caterer told UNI not wanting to be named in the report.
There are good number of households with old people needing soft food with less spice and small neighbourhood caterers service this segment.
Further, there are several roadside eateries catering to lower strata of society, which will also be hit.
As per reports reaching here, a similar situation is in several parts of the country.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin held a meeting with the officials to assess the impact of the war in the Middle East region on the state.
“I have also emphasised that the union Government must ensure that the LPG Cylinder shortage arising from this conflict does not affect the public, commercial establishments, or MSME industries in Tamil Nadu. I have further urged that all necessary alternative arrangements be made for restaurants affected by commercial gas cylinders,” Stalin said.
