More than 125 restaurants in the capital have stopped serving food due to shortage of cooking gas in the market. [break]
Restaurateurs said those which are still operating have to greatly reduce their operations. Some restaurants have stopped evening services while others in the afternoon. Big hotels including five-star hotels have been cancelling banquets and big-ticket parties for almost a month now because of short supply of LPG.
According to estimates, this is causing a loss to the hotel business by at least 50 percent.
"We have not brought it into notice formally but we took only a few bookings for banquets and big parties in the last one month as there is no electricity, no diesel, and finally no LPG," a senior official at one of the five-star hotels said.
Fearing bad publicity in the image-savy restaurant business, many of the leading restaurants are not opening admitting that they have either closed their services for now or reduced them to a large extent. However, Tejendra Shrestha, president of Restaurant and Bar Association of Nepal (REBAN), admitted more than 60 restaurants have pulled down the shutters and 65 others are facing similar fate because of the fuel crisis.
Owner of Kantipath-based Café Olla Prakash Shrestha said he closed the restaurant for a week after not being able to procure enough LPG to run the facility. He resumed the services only last Thursday but only in the daytime. “I need at least 2-3 cylinders a day for full-fledged operations but because of the shortage I am using only one cylinder. I need to cut down on the services,” Prakash Shrestha said.
Another restaurant owner at Thamel said the entire hotel industry is badly hit because of the crisis. “With the fuel crisis, we are badly disappointed,” the restaurateur said preferring anonymity.
REBAN president Shrestha suggested the government should adopt dual pricing for home and commercial users at the earliest and should ensure smooth supply of the fuel.
“The crisis has been for really a long period now and we are not sure when the supplies will be normal,” he said, adding the problem is causing a big downturn in the entire economy. "Hotels and restaurants have been worst-hit by fuel shortage for a long time but this is the first time they have to close their services," added Shrestha.
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