Chulha and induction stove sell like hot cakes as eateries look for alternatives to LPG

Nashik: As the LPG crisis tightens its grip and commercial cylinders vanish from the supply chain, Nashik's food ecosystem is teetering on the edge. Restaurants, mess operators and tiny parcel joints, the lifeline for thousands of students and industrial workers living away from home, are scrambling for ways to keep their kitchens running.With LPG stockpiles exhausted, desperation has pushed many back to the basics — coal-burning chulhas, firewood pits, induction stoves and even old-school coil heaters. For the city's price-sensitive mess operators, this isn't just inconvenience, it's survival."We have a staff of eleven and cook two meals a day for more than forty people. Our LPG stock is finished," Ramesh Patil, who runs a parcel joint off Gangapur Road, said. "People depend on us for food and our workers depend on us for income. We had a small open patch beside the shop, that's now our makeshift chulha zone. Coal, firewood, whatever keeps the flame going," Patil said.But even firewood isn't enough. Many kitchens are turning to electrical equipment to bridge the gap. "The problem with inductions is they need special utensils. Heaters consume too much electricity," Rajesh Jadhav, another parcel-point owner, said. "Still, we chose induction. It is costlier, but safer and more efficient. We bought new utensils and two heavy-duty stoves just to keep serving our customers," he said.And with demand rocketing, the induction market is on fire. "Earlier we'd get 10 enquiries a month. But over the last four days, we are getting at least 20 enquiries per day. Domestic units up to 2,000 watts, commercial ones up to 3,500 watts, everything is selling. Prices that were Rs 1,300 have shot to Rs 1,800 for local units, Rs 2,300 for branded ones, and Rs 3,800-4,500 for commercial models," a local appliance seller said.Even long-forgotten induction stoves are being resurrected. "People are digging out the stoves they bought years ago and never used. I have repaired over a hundred stoves just this past week. And the pile of pending repairs keeps growing," Pramod Jadhav, who repairs electronic appliances, said.