CP restaurants struggle to get PNG despite relaxed norms, may hike menu prices

Restaurant owners in Connaught Place face hurdles in obtaining Piped Natural Gas, leading to potential menu price hikes of 10-20% due to rising LPG costs.

New Delhi: Several restaurant owners in Connaught Place have flagged technical and legal hurdles to obtaining Piped Natural Gas (PNG) connections and continue to use costly Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG), leaving them no option but to raise menu prices in the near future to cover rising costs.

Bringing the PNG line into the building is not easy, as it requires construction across multiple establishments in between and permission from all their owners, a union leader said. (HT Archive)

“Most restaurant owners have started considering raising their (menu) prices by around 10 to 20% due to this. Everyone is hit by the (LPG) shortage, but the main problem we are facing is that due to multiple legal and technical hurdles, many restaurants have not been able to get PNG connections, despite trying for the past 20 years,” said Vikram Badhwar, general secretary of the New Delhi Traders Association (NDTA), a union representing CP shopkeepers.

After the West Asia conflict began in February, LPG imports were disrupted, and prices for both domestic and commercial cylinders rose sharply. The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), which manages Lutyens’ Delhi, decided in March to waive road restoration charges for three months for Indraprastha Gas Limited (IGL) pipelines being laid for PNG connections in the NDMC areas.

The civic body also directed that permission for road-digging for the IGL pipeline be granted within 24 hours of receiving a complete request and instructed IGL to carry out the work on a priority basis.

However, the union said that despite the relaxations, only one restaurant owner in CP had managed to obtain a PNG connection.

“The problem is that IGL has fixed PNG meters in the middle circle, and has asked the owners to get connected with the meter line, which goes to the roof of the building and then comes inside the kitchen, at their own expense,” Badhwar explained.

He said bringing the PNG line into the building is not easy, as it requires construction across multiple establishments in between and permission from all their owners.

Admin head of QBA restaurant, Harminder Singh Arora, said that, as the restaurant is located in the inner circle, seven to eight shops fall between the PNG meter and the restaurant.

“How are we expected to get permission from each establishment? It will also cost us around ₹5 lakhs for the construction. Due to the LPG crisis, we have started calculating how much we can increase our menu prices. We cannot survive without it,” said Arora.

Sunil Malhotara, one of the partners overseeing the iconic Embassy restaurant in the inner circle, also flagged the same problem. “We are waiting to see how the situation turns out. We are buying LPG at around ₹3000. We are also expecting an increase in fuel prices. If that happens, then we will definitely have to increase menu prices. We had tried other ways, such as operating on a reduced menu.”

When contacted, the IGL said that only four customers among those currently registered in CP were facing challenges related to internal pipeline connectivity, and that officials are in deliberations with them to find a way out.

“IGL’s scope of work extends up to the installation of the PNG meter. In CP, NDMC has granted permission to lay pipelines in the service lanes connecting the outer and inner circles. These (locations) are the most feasible and safe route for developing gas pipeline infrastructure in the area,” read an IGL statement to HT.

When asked about the restaurant owners’ demands for installation of meters closer to their establishments, IGL said the meters are installed at the designated transition fitting points. “From the meter onwards, the internal pipeline connection up to the kitchen burners falls under the customer’s scope of work. Due to safety considerations and statutory constraints, the pipelines cannot be laid within such congested utility corridors.”

However, several restaurant owners are hopeful of getting a PNG connection soon. “We are having a discussion with the authorities and are in the process of getting a connection soon,” said Charanjit Singh, the director of Warehouse Cafe in CP.