High transportation rates hit industrial growth

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, August 1

High rates of transportation and monopoly of transport unions are hampering the industrial growth in Himachal. Industrialists in the state allege that transport unions were charging exorbitant transport charges that had made certain units unviable vis-a-vis their competitors in other states. In additions to that the quality of service being given by the transport union was also poor.

Industrialists have demanded that the state government should frame a transport policy for industrial areas and fix transportation charges.

Industrialists having industrial units at Bathu, Bathri and Tahliwal (BBT) industrial area (Una) said the monopoly of transport unions was hitting the growth of industry in the state.

The BBT industrial area was the second biggest and successful industrial area of Himachal after the Baddi, Barotiwala and Nalagarh (BBN) industrial area. Many big and successful industries such as Nestle and Cremica have established units in the BBT area.

The industrialists in BBT alleged that the transport unions in their industrial area were charging exorbitantly for transportation and not allowing the industry to have its own transport even for emergencies.

Transport companies located in Ludhiana or other parts of Punjab are charging less than their counterparts in the BBT industrial area. Since most transporters involved in transport unions were locals, it would be in the interest of all involved that the state government frames a policy and fixes the freight rates in the industrial areas.

An industrialist having a block making unit in Tahliwal alleged that recently he got an order for sending blocs to Ropar area of Punjab located at a distance of about 80 kilometres. The members of truck union asked for whopping Rs 6000 as freight charge. This, he said, made his product unviable. The party, in the meantime, decided to procure the product from elsewhere.

Rohit Suri, another industrialist, said most of the transport unions had minimum nine tonne capacity trucks. In case small scale units need to send small quantities of material, they have to hire these big trucks.

The BBT industrial area is located in the assembly constituency of Mukesh Agnihotri, Minister for Industries. Sources said industrialists have asked the minister to include the transport policy of industrial areas in the new industrial policy of the state.

In Kangra district Damtal area bordering Punjab is the only successful industrial area. Here also the small scale industrialists allege that unreasonable rates were being charged by transport union, which was hitting their competitiveness vis-a-vis industry in the adjoining areas of Punjab.

Minister for Transport GS Bali said that during the stint of previous Congress government, the Transport Department on the directions of the high court had notified the rates that the truck operators could charge. However, most of the transport unions did not agree to it. They are charging higher rates from industry.