Soon, booking your LPG refill will be just a text away, as the Petroleum Ministry now gets textually yours.

To suit the increasingly fast changing lifestyles of the public, the Petroleum Ministry on Monday introduced two innovative value added services in the capital- a common toll free number across the country for customers’ complaints, and short messaging services (SMS)/integrated voice response system (IVRS) facility to refill cooking gas.

The three public sector oil marketing companies (OMCs)- Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation, and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation have unified to facilitate booking LPG through SMS.

Initially, the SMS/IVRS facility will be launched in Delhi with all towns with a population above five lakhs across the country to follow, said the Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Mr Jitin Prasada, said at the national launch of the two services.

Further, a new common toll free number – 155233 for all the OMCs will replace the earlier separate 11 digit toll free numbers being used by the three OMCs.

“To avail themselves of the SMS services, a consumer can simply send out a SMS for booking a refill,” added Mr. Prasada.