Transportation disrupted, industry bears the brunt

Tribune News Service

Ambika Sharma

Solan, February 16

The industrial belt of Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh (BBN) has been adversely hit because of farmer’s stir as all transportation activities to Delhi have come to a standstill. About 250 trucks leave Baddi-Barotiwala area for the National Capital Region of Delhi daily for dropping finished goods as well as securing raw material. The export-oriented units, which transport their goods and raw material through trucks, are unable to find vehicles to drop their goods to ports.

Rajeev Aggarwal, president, BBN Industries Association, said, “The farmer’s stir has hit the industry as transportation of the finished goods to Delhi and its precincts and bringing raw material have been put on hold.”

He added that though the industries did have a stock of raw material which would last for a few days it would be exhausted soon if the stir continued. “I’ve a stock of merely 10 days,” he said.

“Given the total disruption of transportation, the investors will have to slow down their production as finished goods are not being transported and are piling up within the unit premises,” said Aggarwal who hoped for an early end to the stir.

While no truck has been able to transport goods to Delhi, another 250 trucks which transport goods to states like Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajashan, etc are forced to take a detour which has not only made the journey longer but has added substantially to the transportation cost, rued a trucker.

“With the freight already on the higher side in the BBN area, the additional fuel cost for taking longer detours will make our goods costlier,” said Suresh, an industry executive of a Fast Moving Consumer Goods plant.

Echoing similar views, another industry executive Surinder Kumar, who works for a home appliance company, says, “Several of our product components are secured from the NCR area. There is a continuous flow of material as per the requirement. If any single component is exhausted and no supply is received, it will halt the entire production activity and we will incur losses.”

“If the stir continues for some more time, we will face difficulties in meeting orders,” added Kumar. The BBN area houses more than 90 per cent of the state’s industry.

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