Normal life at the usually busy Port in Tuticorin and the wholesale vegetable market in Oddanchatram in Dindigul district was hit on Saturday.
Vessel operations such as loading and off-loading of cargo were not hit. Eight vessels were berthed at the VOC Port, sources told The Hindu .
G. Dhanasingh, president, Tuticorin Lorry Owners’ Association, said that most of the trucks bound for other districts and States remained off the roads. However, cargo trucks were made locally operational to meet the needs of the port users.
However, stevedores association extended its service to complete port related truck traffic. The association joined a one-day token strike on October 1 and resumed its operations subsequently.
J.P. Joe Villavarayar, president, Tuticorin Ship Agents Association, said that there was no inbound and outbound cargo over the last three days. Transportation of bulk cargo such as coal, fertilizers and copper anode required for industries was affected. The port-related industries would incur a revenue loss of Rs.100 crore a day during the strike, he said.
P.S.S.K. Raja Sankaralingam, president, All India Chamber of Commerce and Industries, Tuticorin, said that transhipment of industrial raw materials was affected.
G.P. Joe Prakash, president, Tuticorin Tipper Lorry Owners Association, said that they had not joined the strike as the association did not agree with all the demands placed by the other lorry associations. Around 800 tipper lorries had been transporting bulk cargoes.
S. Varadharajan, secretary, Tuticorin District Container Truck Owners Association, said that around 80 to 90 per cent of 600 trucks went off the roads and the rest of the vehicles were carrying stuffed cargo from container freight stations (CFS) to the port here. Livelihood of around 5,000 direct workers and 15,000 indirect workers relying on this logistics industry was affected by the strike.
C. Karthikeya Prabhu, secretary, Tuticorin Chapter of National Association for Container Freight Stations, said that cargo handling operations in all 13 container freight stations and an inland container depot went on as usual.
A port user said that bulk cargo and containerised cargo handling operations were on from CFSs to the port by owner-cum-driver of trucks, but no container truck moved off the CFSs. Shipment of fabric items through the port was affected as transportation of cargo from Karur, Tirupur and Coimbatore, was paralysed.
At Oddanchatram
One of the biggest markets in the State situated in Dindigul district started feeling the heat due to the absence of truckers.
According to the Oddanchatram Wholesale Vegetable Merchants’ Asociation, vehicles with national and inter-State permit transporting commodities from Karnakata, Andhra Pradesh and among other destinations had suspended their operations for the last three days.
Meanwhile, local operators in many southern districts used alternative modes to transport vegetables from wholesale points to other markets. As a result, onion was priced between Rs. 50 to Rs. 55 per kg at private stores and between Rs 28 and Rs 35 at wholesale markets and uzhavar sandhais.
Vegetable prices slowly look upwards as truckers stay off road
