Kolkata: The lunch rush in several of Kolkata’s busiest office districts — from Dalhousie and Camac Street to Park Street and Salt Lake — is beginning to look very different as a worsening LPG shortage forces eateries and food stalls to raise prices, drop popular dishes, and even shut down operations as commercial gas cylinders become scarce and prohibitively expensive.At a busy eatery in Dalhousie, owner Biswanath Maity said the shortage forced him to simplify his kitchen operations. “Earlier our lunch menu included biryani, mutton curry and several fried items. Now we are focusing mainly on rice, dal, egg curry and a couple of quick vegetable dishes. We simply cannot afford to keep the gas on for long hours,” said Maity, who runs the hotel near the Tea Board office. He said prices were raised by 5–10% as LPG became increasingly difficult to procure. “Commercial cylinders are selling at nearly Rs 4,000 in the black market, and even that is not easy to get,” he added.Some vendors were forced to temporarily suspend business before finding alternatives. Rekha Das, who runs a small eatery serving rice and roti meals, said she closed for two days before arranging kerosene stoves. At the busy food stretch outside the CGO Complex in Salt Lake, the impact is stark. More than half of the 22 food stalls that once served office-goers temporarily shut down.Siddhartha Shankar Pal, a Kestopur resident who has been running a food stall near the complex for 26 years, said the crisis forced him to revert to older cooking methods. “Commercial cylinders now cost around Rs 3,500. I shifted to LPG eight years ago, but now I went back to wooden and coal ovens,” Pal said. “We increased prices slightly.”Several vendors turned to coal-based cooking as a last resort. Sambhunath Poyra, who runs a stall outside City Centre I in Salt Lake, said he recently bought two coal ovens for Rs 5,500 to keep business running. “I did not increase the price per thali,” Poyra said. “But earlier I used to offer free refills. Now I have started charging for that.”The effect is also visible at Park Street, Russell Street and Camac Street, where lunch counters are running with curtailed menus and higher prices. Shahnawaz Hussain, who sells luchi, alurdam, khichdi and fritters on Park Street, said prices increased by Rs 5 to Rs 25 depending on the item.“Chicken stew with two pieces of bread that used to cost Rs 100 now costs Rs 125,” said Ipsita Chowdhury, who works at a private bank on Camac Street. “Some of our colleagues have started bringing food from home.”
