Delay in arrival of new gas cylinders and pulling out of old Indane ones by Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), for statutory tests, has resulted in a shortfall in the city.
Thousands of consumers are waiting for refills.
The city has 165 Indane distributors who supply around 60,000 refills to 4.5 lakh consumers every day.
“Though it has been 25 days since I booked my refill, I am yet to get it. The cylinder at home is empty and we are now dependant on the kerosene stove. My wife is finding it tough to cope with, especially when it comes to packing lunch boxes for our school-going children,” said M. Kandavel, a resident of Tondiarpet.
S. Suganthi, vice-president of Tamil Nadu Progressive Consumer Centre in Pattabiram, said, since kerosene supply has been cut for family card holders with two cylinders, she is unable to get even kerosene.
“Last month too, there was a delay in supply of LPG cylinder. It has now been 26 days since I booked the refill. I may have to book again if it gets delayed further,” she said.
Sources at IOCL said, around 30 per cent of the cylinders had been pulled out for testing. This, coupled with delay in arrival of new cylinders, has hit output at the company’s Ennore bottling plant, which caters to around 50 per cent of the city’s requirement.
Output at the Ennore plant has been reduced to 40-50 loads per day, from the usual 175 loads. “The production at Ennore has now touched 110 loads a day. We hope normalcy will return in a couple of days. Supply to consumers is expected to become regular in 10 days,” said an official.