MUMBAI: The city could face a shortage of pav and bread within three to four days, according to bakers. They say their situation may be “worse” than that of eating joints, as many major producers switched to gas-based ovens around six months ago and now depend heavily on fuel supplies. Of the roughly 800 bakeries across Mumbai, around 350 major ones have shifted to gas-based ovens and together supply nearly 70% of the city’s bakery needs. On average, these bakers spent about Rs 7 lakh each to install gasbased fittings and move away from wood-fired chimneys that were considered polluting.
Khodada Irani, president of the India Bakers Association, said most of these bakeries depend on LPG cylinders. “Eighty percent of these 350 bakeries run on commercial LPG cylinders, while only 20% run on commercial PNG, the supply of which is being curtailed as a precautionary measure,” he said,adding that the remaining bakeries are mostly smaller units still using traditional ovens. “The other 450 bakeries out of the total 800, most of which are in the suburbs, run on old woodfired ovens supplied locally. They cater to only 30% of Mumbai’s supply.”Bakers said many of them had recently switched to gasbased ovens following BMC directives. “Recently, on BMC orders, many of us switched to gas-based ovens. Since bakeries like ours require continuous and high-volume fuel supply, the present irregular supply is affecting basic food items such as pav and bread that Mumbaikars rely on,” said Asif Farooqui of Azmi Bakery and Tawakkal Bakery. “Some bakers have requested permission to temporarily use their old ovens, which are intact and operational to meet the demand.”But Irani said that when one baker approached BMC officials with such a request, he was told to seek legal approval.
