MP hotels prepare contingency plans for LPG supply disruption

INDORE: Hotels across Madhya Pradesh began preparing contingency plans to deal with potential disruption in commercial LPG supplies, with the state hotel industry body issuing an advisory asking members to conserve fuel and streamline kitchen operations.In a letter circulated to hotels, the Madhya Pradesh Hotel Association asked members to rationalise menus, limit gas-intensive cooking processes and explore electric cooking alternatives to ensure business continuity if supply tightened. "We have advised hotels to rationalise menus, prioritise dishes that require less gas usage and adopt fuel conservation practices in kitchens. The idea is to ensure continuity of services and avoid operational disruption if LPG availability tightens," said Sumit Suri, chairman of the MP committee of the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Western India and president of the Indore Hoteliers Association.The advisory came amid concerns that geopolitical tensions affecting global energy supply chains could disrupt the availability of commercial LPG used by hotels, restaurants and caterers.Industry representatives said hotels with lodging facilities and in-house restaurants could face operational challenges if the situation escalated and supplies became irregular. The hospitality sector was asked to take preventive steps to manage fuel consumption while ensuring guest services were not severely affected.Hotels were asked to temporarily suspend or reduce menu items that required long simmering, deep frying or multiple burners, and to adopt practices such as batch cooking, pressure cooking and using lids during cooking to conserve fuel.The advisory also suggested simplifying restaurant and banquet menus, consolidating kitchen operations where hotel groups ran multiple outlets, and monitoring daily LPG consumption to track usage and prevent wastage.Hotels were also encouraged to explore alternative cooking systems such as induction cooktops, electric fryers, electric griddles and rice cookers to partially shift operations away from LPG.Industry officials said the hospitality sector supported a large ecosystem of employees, suppliers and tourism-related businesses, and any disruption in fuel supply could affect operations across hotels, restaurants and catering units.