Truckers to block highways on Feb 4

Solan, January 31

Transporters today decided to block highways in various industrial areas of the state on February 4 in protest against the inability of the state government to resolve the 48-day-old dispute with the Adani Group management over freight rates.

Rebut statement of Adani group mgmt

The transporters termed as farce the statement of the Adani Group CEO that only 550 trucks are required for the two plants.

The Himachal Pradesh Transporters Federation (HPTF) lent support to the transporters of Barmana in Bilaspur district and Darlaghat in Solan district, who are without work since December 15 after the Adani Group closed two cement plants there.

Ramkrishan Sharma, general secretary of the HPTF, said, “As the state government has failed to resolve the impasse between the transporters and the Adani Group management, they have decided to block highways in various industrial areas in the state on February 4.”

He said that the transporters of Darlaghat and Barmana had got support from the truckers of Paonta Sahib and Una while talks were being held with their counterparts in various industrial areas in Kangra and other districts.”

Meanwhile, the transporters of Barmana, Darlaghat, Una and Paonta Sahib attended a virtual meeting. They said, “The state government’s assertion that it is merely mediating between the Adani Group management and the transporters shows that it is desisting from taking a decisive step and has been holding fruitless discussions.”

They termed as farce the statement of the chief executive officer of the Adani Group management that only 550 trucks were required for the two plants. The transporters argued that a dispatch of 22,000 metric tonnes of cement from the two plants every day could not be handled with mere 550 trucks.

The transporters said, “The loading and unloading of cement takes a lot of time and a vehicle returns after three days. The maximum mileage attained in 250 working days is around 31,250 km per year while last year’s average was mere 21,580 km as against 40,000 km to 50,000 km per annum claimed by the Adani Group management.”