India, May 16 -- Several restaurant owners in Connaught Place have flagged technical and legal hurdles to obtaining Piped Natural Gas (PNG) connections and continue to use costly Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG), leaving them no option but to raise menu prices in the near future to cover rising costs.

"Most restaurant owners have started considering raising their (menu) prices by around 10 to 20% due to this. Everyone is hit by the (LPG) shortage, but the main problem we are facing is that due to multiple legal and technical hurdles, many restaurants have not been able to get PNG connections, despite trying for the past 20 years," said Vikram Badhwar, general secretary of the New Delhi Traders Association (NDTA), a union representing CP shopke...