Bhopal News: Manual LPG Booking Adds To Queues At Gas Agencies

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Manual booking has done little to ease congestion at gas agency outlets, with LPG consumers now facing additional queues for direct refill bookings.

Amid persistent “server down” issues, oil marketing companies have opened manual booking windows, but these remain limited to a few agencies.

Meanwhile, online booking continues to face disruptions due to server glitches triggered by a heavy load of requests, overwhelming the digital infrastructure used by LPG dealers.

As a result, many users encounter a “server down” message while trying to book a refill, forcing consumers in several cities to visit LPG distributor offices directly in the hope of securing a cylinder. This has further added to long queues outside gas agency outlets.

BS Sharma, Akhil Bharatiya Upbhokta Congress president, said, “The problem persists in LPG online booking. Even as manual booking facilities have been provided, they have failed to ease the situation and have instead led to additional queues for direct cylinder booking. Therefore, long queues at gas agency outlets continue, and people are also queuing up at godowns for refills.”

MP Petrol Pumps Dealers Association president Ajay Singh said there is no relief from the heavy rush of LPG consumers as chaos continues at gas agency outlets.

“There is no improvement in the situation. Distributors say the booking system is struggling to handle the unusually high volume of requests. As the online systems remain slow or inaccessible, LPG distributors in many cities have started witnessing crowds of customers at their offices.

People are standing in long queues to either place refill requests or check the status of existing bookings,” Singh said.