Gurgaon: As anxiety grows over cooking gas supplies, city residents are finding that even booking an LPG cylinder has become a struggle. For many, repeated attempts on the online system ended with the same message — “server down” — while others who had already placed orders said they are now receiving cancellation alerts.Despite the govt’s direction to prioritise domestic LPG, consumers said supplies on the ground remained uncertain, sending households into panic.Subham Pradhan spent the last two days trying to book a refill, making more than 50 attempts without success. Each time, he said, the system showed the same error. Many across the city had the same experience, with cylinders running low in kitchens.Atul Gautam said his family was now worried about how long their kitchen could function. “I live with my wife and children and, for safety reasons, I do not keep an extra cylinder at home. I usually book when the current one is about to finish and get delivery within two days. Now, the only cylinder is nearly over and I still cannot place a booking,” he added.Gautam said every attempt over the past two days had failed. When he called the agency, he was told bookings had stopped because of a server problem. “I asked them to accept a physical booking, but they refused and said bookings could only be made online,” he said.For some, the problem has gone beyond failed bookings. Gagan Chaudhary said he had booked a cylinder before the crisis, only to first face delays and then receive a cancellation alert on Thursday. “I booked a cylinder before the situation escalated. First, the delivery was delayed, and now it has been cancelled,” he said, adding that the agency did not give him a clear explanation.Sharad Mehta said he still had one cylinder in use, but wanted another in reserve because of the uncertainty. “Everyone is trying to book. People are also looking at other ways to get a cylinder,” he said.According to distributors, a sudden surge in demand — about ten times the usual level — had overwhelmed the booking platform.Shashi Kant Sharma, vice-president of the Federation of LPG Distributors of India, said the system was not built to handle such heavy traffic. “Bookings have risen tenfold, so the system has slowed and people are facing problems. We are working on it at the backend,” he said.Sharma added some cancellation alerts were also linked to the system overload.Other factors, he added, were also blocking bookings, including the waiting period rising from 15 days to 25 days and many consumers exhausting the annual cap of 15 cylinders. “We are at the end of the financial year in March. So, there are many people who have already used up their quota,” he said.He urged residents not to make panic bookings and said all pending consumers would eventually get cylinders. Sharma also advised people to try alternative booking platforms such as Paytm and Amazon.Praveen Malik, the RWA president of Rising Homes, said tenants and other residents without permanent LPG connections were also under pressure.
