PANAJI
Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinder bookings and dispatches have surged sharply, pointing to a fresh wave of panic booking across Goa.
While an average of around 11,000 domestic LPG cylinders were dispatched daily over the last three days, the number spiked to nearly 14,700 cylinders on Sunday alone, indicating a sudden rush among consumers to secure supplies.
Official data for Sunday shows that the State had 360.494 metric tonnes (MT) of domestic LPG as opening stock. During the day, an additional 219.842 MT was received, taking the total available stock to 580.336 MT.
However, 209.21 MT of LPG was dispatched during the day, which translates to around 14,700 domestic cylinders, suggesting that consumers rushed to book cylinders despite government appeals against panic buying.
The closing domestic stock stood at 371.126 MT, equivalent to roughly 26,000 cylinders, while authorities maintained that the inflow of LPG cylinder to distributors will continue on daily basis.
Officials said the State currently has 55 LPG distributors, including 33 of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPC), 17 of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and five of Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL). One of the IOCL distributors caters exclusively to the Army.
Meanwhile, commercial LPG supplies remain constrained. On Sunday, over 700 cylinders were supplied for commercial purposes.
Sources said that the supply is enough to tackle the current situation and everything should normalize shortly. "We appeal citizens not to panic and go for such huge bookings. The server has slowed down as a result of heavy bookings," sources said.
