India, March 27 -- Industrial production in the Kalyan-Dombivli and Ambernath MIDC industrial zones has been halved as the acute shortage of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and piped natural gas (PNG) forces migrant workers to return to their native villages.

Industrial bodies representing the manufacturing units in these two zones claim that around half the 300,000-odd workers, who run the manufacturing and other processes in these areas, have left. It's a question of survival, they explained, as the LPG and PNG shortage due to the war in West Asia has left them without the means to cook their meals.

For those hoping to brave it out, exhaustion is already setting in. Gulab Chand Nishad, who works in a Bombay Dyeing factory in the Dombivl...