Date:07/01/2009 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2009/01/07/stories/2009010759030300.htm

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Truck operators’ strike may accelerate

Staff Reporter

Owners of vehicles transporting various other commodities likely to jump on to bandwagon

— Photo: K.Pichumani

RIPPLE EFFECT: With the truckers on strike, goods have started piling up at several locations. A scene at Chennai Central Railway Station on Tuesday.

CHENNAI: The strike by truckers is likely to intensify in the city with vehicles engaged in transporting various other commodities also planning to join the protest from Thursday.

On Tuesday, the Koyambedu wholesale vegetable market received only about 40 per cent of its daily supply. Vendors at the market said that several suppliers transported goods using smaller vehicles.

The prices of the vegetables, however, remained the same as on Monday with most vendors having sufficient stocks of the produce to meet the day’s demand. The cost of the vegetables is expected to soar in the coming days in view of the decline in the arrivals, sources in the market said.

Wholesale rice merchants in Red Hills and several retail shop owners in the city said that the strike was yet to impact their customers as there were sufficient stocks of essential commodities to last for the next few days. Stocks were piling up at several locations, including major railway stations in the absence of vehicles to take them to their destinations.

R. Sugumar, official spokesperson (southern states) of All India Motor Transport Congress, said that nearly 15,000 heavy vehicles in the city remained off roads for the second consecutive day as part of the nation-wide indefinite strike call.

To the Union Ministry of Surface Transport’s statement that lorry permits would be suspended, he said the lorry transport industry in Tamil Nadu was already suffering 40 per cent loss due to various reasons, including a drop in the business following the economic recession and a shortage of drivers. Nearly 1,000 heavy vehicles across the State have been seized on account of default in repayment of the loan over the past six months.

Mr. Sugumar said that tankers transporting petrol and diesel would also join the strike from Thursday. The impact was already visible in Tiruvallur district where some petrol bunks reported stock outs on Tuesday. Many tankers engaged in transporting liquefied petroleum gas in bulk too joined the strike on Monday, in which a total of 4.5 lakh heavy vehicles are participating. The truck operators suffered a loss of Rs.10,000 a day for every lorry that remained off the road, he said.

An official of the Indian Oil Corporation, however, refuted this and said that bulk tankers were moving the product. Sources among the LPG distributors of oil marketing companies said that there was a reduction in the number of cylinder loads sent from bottling plants. Hundreds of households across the city were also resorting to panic booking of refills.

In the event of the officials of the public sector oil companies going ahead with a strike from Wednesday, the situation would turn grave with regard to the LPG supplies, the distributors said.