Kathmandu, March 20 -- Raghu Basnet and his wife arrived at the Nepal Gas plant in Balaju Industrial Area with two empty cylinders of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) on Thursday afternoon. As there was no queue, they dropped their two cylinders, paid for two half refills, loaded them onto their scooter and left.

"We were really afraid of a shortage due to news coming from West Asia," said Basnet.

But he was not as worried as in the past. He now owns an electric cooking stove.

In earlier years, every news about cooking gas shortages would trigger panic. The situation was most severe in 2015, when India imposed a blockade, halting fuel supplies to Nepal. People even brought wood to cook food.

Separately, Rudra BK arrived at the Salt Tradi...