New Delhi: The city’s vast street food economy — sustained by tea stalls, momo vendors, dhabas, tandoor shops and roadside Chinese joints — is beginning to feel the heat of the war in West Asia. Concerns are growing over tightening supplies of commercial LPG cylinders as geopolitical tensions disrupt shipping routes and the Centre prioritises domestic cooking gas. The daily livelihoods of thousands of small vendors across the city rely heavily on LPG for cooking, and many say even a brief disruption in cylinder supply could affect their ability to keep the businesses running. Unlike larger restaurants, most roadside eateries operate with limited LPG stock and depend on frequent refills, making them particularly vulnerable to delay in supplies. At a tea stall in Lajpat Nagar, R K Pathak who hails from Gonda in Uttar Pradesh stood beside a small stove balanced on a 15-kg domestic LPG cylinder — an illegal but common workaround in the informal sector where commercial cylinders are considered too expensive.“Business slows down from the beginning of summer as more people have cold drinks instead of tea,” Pathak said. “On top of that, if gas becomes dearer, we will be directly hit. We can’t hike the price of tea. Who will buy it then?”Pathak has only one cylinder left, which he estimates will last three to four days. “If prices keep rising, how will we manage? As it is, we have to pay govt officials to keep our stalls running,” he said.Across the city, vendors say that the informal use of domestic cylinders and purchases through unofficial channels are routine in the unorganised food sector. But many say prices in the black market are already rising due to the war in West Asia.Payal Kashyap, who runs a small street café, said LPG costs have been steadily climbing over the years. “Around 13 years ago, we used to get a cylinder for about Rs 315. Now, it is around Rs 1,500. Why do prices keep on increasing? Why don’t they ever come down,” she wondered.Her small kitchen consumes about four cylinders a month, depending on sales. “Cooking without gas isn’t possible. Induction doesn’t give the same taste. If restrictions tighten further, we’ll have no option but to buy cylinders from the black market,” she said.In Laxmi Nagar, biryani vendor Mukesh Mishra showed a small 5 kg commercial cylinder beside his cart. “This lasts only two days, and we mostly use it for reheating,” he said. “The biryani is cooked at home using a domestic cylinder. There’s no cylinder left at home now and we need to refill every alternate day.”Momo seller Manoj Yadav, who uses nearly 6 to 7 kg of gas daily, said uncertainty over its supply is worrying. “Today we managed with the gas we had. Tomorrow, we’ll see if we get more,” he said. “If we can’t, we’ll have to buy it from the black market. Otherwise, the stall will shut down.”While commercial cylinders typically have no refill limit, domestic connections, which many small vendors illegally rely on, come with caps on the number of subsidised refills allowed in a month, making it difficult for vendors to sustain their businesses if commercial supplies tighten. To avoid hoarding, govt has increased the refill time from 21 to 25 days for domestic connections. While the informal sector is already feeling the pressure, restaurant associations say Delhi’s organised restaurant sector has not yet reached the level of disruption seen in some other cities. Sagar Daryani, president of National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI), said some restaurants in cities like Pune and Bengaluru have faced temporary shutdown due to LPG shortages. Delhi, he said, is somewhat better placed due to partial reliance on piped natural gas (PNG).“Many malls and some high-end restaurants in areas like Connaught Place operate on PNG connections,” he said. “But that still accounts for only about 10-15% of the sector. Nearly 80% of restaurants depend on LPG cylinders.”Dayani said most restaurants in Delhi have stock to manage for a day or two, but warned that prolonged disruptions could quickly create problems. “There is already a bit of worry as people think commercial connections might be restricted,” he said.The association has issued an advisory to restaurants suggesting that they rationalise menus by retaining dishes that require lower gas consumption, go for batch cooking and reduce gas usage during peak hours. NRAI has also written to the Centre many times requesting the restaurant industry to be included in essential services category as was done during Covid-19. Across India, the restaurant industry employs about 8.5 million people and includes nearly five lakh establishments, according to NRAI. Any prolonged LPG disruption could therefore affect both businesses and jobs. Amit Bagga, co-founder of Daryaganj Restaurants and co-head of NRAI’s Delhi chapter, warned that restrictions could encourage hoarding of cylinders and disrupt legitimate supply chains.
