Indian Oil Corporation, the major distributor of cooking gas in the state, has halved its production at its bottling plants following a shortage of bulk LPG at Mangalore terminal.
This is a jolt to the state, which is limping back from a severe cooking gas supply crunch following a tanker strike that ended last week, According to sources in the district supply office, IOC officials confided on shortage during a recent meeting convened by the district collector here.
“The IOC authorities have said that the share of the gas supply to the state has come down as there is a shortage of bulk LPG at the Mangalore terminal.” said the Ernakulam collector, P.I. Sheikh Pareeth.
“This reduction will be a big blow to the LPG distribution in the state which was recovering from the bullet tanker lorry strike,” said Pareeth.
The district administration approached state government to plead with the state food and civil supplies authorities since the more than 37 lakh IOC consumers account for around 60 per cent of the total LPG connections in the state.
Roughly, 270 loads of gas 300 cylinders each are distributed daily across the state from the three IOC bottling plants at Udayamperoor in Kochi, Chelari in Malappuram and Parippally in Kollam.
"We have taken up the matter with the food and civil supplies department and sought its intervention in the matter so that the full supply is restored. We have even written to the IOC regional sales manager,"said Mr Pareeth.
IOC officials while admitting that there has been a massive reduction in the flow of LPG into the state said, "We are still trying to make up for the shortage created due to the recent tanker lorry strike. But we got no news about any official decision to halve the LPG supply," a senior official of IOC told Deccan Chronicle.