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Following road subsidence on the Prithvi Highway at Krishnabhir, cooking gas (LPG) is now being bottled outside the federal capital before being transported into Kathmandu.

As bullet trucks carrying gas could not enter Kathmandu even through alternative routes, gas cylinders are being filled at bottling plants in other districts and dispatched to the valley in cargo trucks.

Salt Trading Corporation’s “STC Gas” is now being filled at Manoj Gas in Birgunj.

According to Bimal Kalakheti, operator of Baba Gas, Chitwan-based Baba Gas filled and dispatched 1,500 cylinders of Shree Gas on Tuesday. The primary bottling plant for Shree Gas is located in Naubise, Dhading.

Similarly, Chitwan’s Sai Baba Gas dispatched 900 of its own cylinders to Kathmandu, while Nepal Gas Gandaki filled and sent 1,200 cylinders belonging to Balaju-based Nepal Gas.

At Janaki Gas in Gaidakot, cylinders for Naubise’s Shreeram Gas were filled, while Sahara Gas in Hetauda filled cylinders for Kathmandu’s Everest and Sugam Gas companies.

Kalakheti added that Sagarmatha Gas in Banepa has begun filling at Chandi Gas in Parasi.

Other companies based in Banepa - including Lokpriya, Super Gas, and Tara Gas - have also started bottling at various gas industries outside the capital and transporting the filled cylinders via the Tribhuvan Highway.

Kalakheti, who is also a member of the Nepal LP Gas Industry Association, assured that there will be no shortage of gas.

He noted that LPG imports from India have not decreased; instead, companies unable to transport bullet trucks to their primary plants are simply filling at other regional industries and hauling the cylinders by truck.

He stated that 60,200 metric tons of gas entered Nepal from India last month - the highest volume to date - and imports continue at a similar rate.

Dewan Chand, President of the Nepal LP Gas Industry Association, confirmed that the Nepal Oil Corporation has authorized industrialists to bottle gas outside the valley.

A total of 16 bottling industries operating in the valley and neighboring districts have coordinated with plants in Bara, Parsa, Chitwan, Makwanpur, Nawalparasi (Bardaghat-Susta East), and Nawalparasi (Bardaghat-Susta West) to fill cylinders and transport them to the capital, which accounts for nearly 40% of the nation’s total gas consumption.