A visit to a popular restaurant in Kochi turned into a frustrating experience for 22-year-old Vaishakh on Thursday evening, as the ongoing LPG crisis continues to disrupt the hospitality industry across Kerala. Vaishakh, a Kannur native working at an IT firm in Kochi, had planned an Ifthar party for a group of 30 colleagues. They had pre-booked their meal orders from a local restaurant. However, when they called to confirm the details, the restaurant apologised, citing a shortage of LPG and explained they could not fulfill the pre-booked order. This inconvenience left Vaishakh unsettled and prompted him to find a solution.

Determined to prevent others from facing similar disappointments, Vaishakh contacted his friend Viswanatha, also 22, with whom he had collaborated on college projects. Together, they spent the night developing a website to track and inform people which restaurants in Kochi were still operational during the LPG shortage.

The result was GasUndo—a crowdsourced live map that helps Kochi residents find restaurants still open and operational amidst the ongoing crisis, based on people’s feedback. The website https://www.gasundo.live allows users to track restaurant status, showing which are open, closed, or operating with a limited menu due to gas shortage.

Vaishakh told Onmanorama that over 2,400 restaurants in Kochi alone have been integrated into the website. "We identified 2,488 restaurants in Kochi using OpenStreetMap, a map database. The site went live this morning, and we’ve already had over 300 visitors. A few people have already shared their feedback, which is helping others make informed decisions. This is meant to be a temporary solution for those who rely on restaurants for food during the crisis,” said the Kannur native.

Users visiting restaurants can share real-time updates about the menu and the status of the restaurant. Visitors can check the ‘freshness’ of the information through a feature that shows how recent the updates are. Additionally, a unique ‘upvote’ system helps ensure the accuracy of the information. For example, if one user reports that a restaurant no longer offers biryani due to a gas shortage, others can upvote the claim. If four or more users support the same comment, it confirms the validity of the update. Vaishakh maintained that while this system helps prevent false reports, they are working to further refine the model based on user feedback.

Currently, GasUndo is focused on Kochi, but Vaishakh and Viswanath plan to expand it to other cities if the response is positive. Online food delivery platforms like Swiggy and Zomato only display available food items, but GasUndo helps restaurant-goers to understand whether the full menu is available or if some items are unavailable due to gas shortage.

Vaishakh said he hopes that GasUndo will offer some relief to those affected by the LPG crisis and improve the experience for people depending on restaurants for their meals during these uncertain times.

How to access the website

• Go to gasundo.live.
• To find restaurant information, enter the specific hotel details into the search bar.
• If someone has recently updated the information, the details will be displayed.
• If not, the system will state that the hotel needs a fresh update.
• If you have visited the spot and it needs an update, you can add the information yourself.