With power outages AND soaring mercury, The city'S beer lovers are cooling off with hot pints
With power outages AND soaring mercury, The city'S beer lovers are cooling off with hot pints
With the city reeling under searing heat and power outages for several hours, beer lovers, too, are tasting a sour summer. Just as liquor sales have shot up, so has the temperature of beer stocks, dampening the spirits of many.
Liquor vendors cite load shedding for innumerable hours as a reason for selling hot beer cans in place of chilled
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Just chill: Customers standing in front of a liquor shop in east Delhi on Sunday.u00a0 A board displaying chilled beer not availableu00a0
u00a0PIC/IMTIYAZ KHAN |
ones.
"Everyday we sell around 250 crates of chilled beer. But due to power shortage, the sale of liquor has increased. Now, people have no option but to cool off with hot bottles in this weather," said Manish Kumar, owner of a liquor shop in Laxmi Nagar area.
"For the last two days, I am trying hard to locate even one shop which has stocked chilled beer. The vendors, due to power outage, have stopped the functioning of the freezers.
I am left with no other alternative but to drink hot beer. Even the half-kilo ice cubes, which I used to earlier purchase with my drink fearing power cuts, are not available any more," said Rakesh Agarwal, a resident of Amar Colony in south Delhi.
Not only this, the demand for chilled liquor has forced lots of shop owners to put up boards saying only hot beers are available. "Everyone wants a chilled beer. But it's not possible due to poor supply of power. It becomes really difficult in this heat to handle the long queues, screaming and haggling for chilled liquor.u00a0
To avoid any kind of explanation, we have put up a board stating chilled beer is not available," said another vendor in Sector 18, Noida.
Demand and SupplyThe demand of power in 2009 has increased up to 15 per cent compared to 8.5 per cent demand anticipated. On Saturday, the city touched highest power demand of 4218 MW. However, the situation improved a bit on Sunday and the peak demand was recorded at 3957 MW.
