When the stove goes cold: LPG shortage hits street food stalls hard

“LPG problem hai, isliye kai logon ne stall band rakha hai (LPG problem is there and so people have stopped putting up stalls),” said street vendor Sharada Hiremath, who runs a Davangere dosa stall near Ramoshi Gate, pointing to the row of closed carts around her.

“For us, gas is everything,” she added. “My cylinder will last only till tonight. If I cannot get another one tomorrow, I will have to shut the stall.”

Like many small vendors, Hiremath usually operates with just one LPG cylinder. “Unlike restaurants, we cannot maintain backup stock,” she said.

Across parts of Pune, small street food vendors say they are beginning to feel the effects of tightening commercial LPG supply. For businesses that rely entirely on a single cylinder to cook everything from wada pav and bhajiyas to dabeli and omelettes, even a short delay in supply can disrupt the evening rush and wipe out the day’s earnings.

At Sonal Snacks Centre in Kasturi Chowk — a small but well-known eatery famous for its bread patties — owner Avinash Suryavanshi said he has been struggling to keep the stall running amid the LPG shortage. “I have somehow managed till today by borrowing cylinders from friends who run similar stalls,” Suryavanshi said. “But I don’t know how long I will be able to manage like this. The day I am unable to arrange gas, I will have to shut the stall.” The eatery, which has been part of Pune’s street food culture for decades, is known for its freshly fried bread patties served with chutney, onions and green chillies. Started by the Suryavanshi family as a handcart in the 1970s, the stall gradually grew into a permanent snack centre and today attracts a steady stream of regular customers.

But with LPG supply becoming uncertain, Suryavanshi says even long-running businesses like his are finding it difficult to operate normally.

A few lanes away in Market Yard, Mahesh Singh, who runs a small dabeli and sandwich cart, said the uncertainty has forced him to shut his stall earlier than usual. “Earlier I would start by 5 pm and continue till around 10 at night,” Singh said. “Now I try to close earlier because I don’t want to run out of gas when customers are waiting.” For vendors like Singh, even a single evening without business can have financial consequences.“These carts operate largely on daily cash flow,” he said. “If we cannot cook for one evening, that money is gone. It affects our ability to manage daily expenses and credit. People think it’s just a street food cart, but when the stove stops, our livelihood stops too.”

Back at the Garden Wada Pav Centre, owner Sanjay Naik kept a close eye on the LPG cylinder tucked beneath his frying counter.“The gas we have will last maybe another day,” he said, glancing at the single frying unit that was still running. On most evenings, two large kadais operate simultaneously to keep up with demand for nearly 2,000 to 3,000 wada pav.

“Right now we are managing with just one,” Naik said. “If the cylinder finishes and we cannot get a refill in time, we will have to shut the cart. And when the cart shuts, the whole day’s income disappears.” According to Naiku, the uncertainty has forced him to cut back production. “Earlier, the distributor would send a new cylinder the same day. Now sometimes we have to wait. So I try to cook less and stretch the gas,” he said.Street food carts across Pune’s older neighbourhoods are not only small businesses but also an important source of affordable meals.

For Chanchal Kumar, a tempo driver who often relies on street food carts during long work shifts, these stalls provide one of the cheapest meal options available.“A wada pav for Rs 20 or Rs 25 fills the stomach,” he said while waiting near a stall. “Restaurants are too expensive for us. If these carts close early, we have to spend more money somewhere else.”