Pune: Restaurant owners and homemakers reported a sharp price rise of alternative fuels such as coal and firewood, and even black marketing, as they scrambled for cooking options.City-based coal supplier Prem Pawar said the fuel’s demand had shot up nearly 80% after many people failed to get domestic LPG cylinders. Even residents of some housing societies were compelled to look for unconventional cooking options like coal.Chaya Bhavar, a resident of Narhe in Pune, said she recently bought a coal stove after failing to get an LPG cylinder. “We were unable to get a cylinder for our family of eight, so we bought a coal stove from Satara. We bought coal and firewood thereafter. We are cooking on the balcony now. The idea came from our village. When I went there. I saw people using coal stoves, so we decided to buy one too because no cylinder was available,” she said.“Residents of housing societies are buying 5-10 kg of coal at a time because they are unable to get LPG. Some of them are cooking on balconies using coal stoves as they don’t have backup LPG cylinders. The price of coal has gone up because the supply is being held back in the market,” coal supplier Pawar said.Suppliers in the city confirmed that black marketing of coal was rampant. They claimed that some dealers were hoarding stock to sell at higher prices amid the sudden surge in demand.Coal supplier Aditya Pawar said, “Some players are creating an artificial shortage to get better price though coal supplies are stable. They’re jacking up price from Rs32 per kg to Rs45 per kg..”Restaurant industry representatives said the LPG shortage had triggered panic buying of alternate fuels, leading to shortage across the market. Saili Jahagirdar, chapter head of the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI), Pune, said restaurants were increasingly being forced to rely on temporary arrangements, which were now becoming difficult to sustain. “The hybrid model has a shelf life. People have started holding coal in bulk — 200kg, 500kg at a time — and that leads to black marketing. Even firewood is becoming difficult to find because people are picking it up and storing it,” she said.Arvind Budhani, the owner of Budhani Wafers, said farsan and snack manufacturers were forced to shift to alternate fuels because of the LPG shortage. “Many farsan-makers are buying coal or diesel to continue with the production of chips and other items. We are using diesel because our system is dual-fired and works on both LPG and diesel,” he said.
