More than 5,000 lorries were off the road for 12 hours as truck owners struck work on Wednesday in protest against sharp increase in diesel price.
Cargo movement from Thoothukudi VOC Port came to a grinding halt here between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.
They said the Union Government had increased the fuel price on several times and diesel had become ₹ 15 dearer since March. Even as the lockdown had telling impact on the cargo movement and owners are struggling to repay the loan they had availed for buying the vehicle, the fuel price increase had almost decimated the industry. Banks to which the hypothecation of the vehicles had been done were coercing the truck owners to repay the loan regularly or face the seizure of the trucks for recovering the loan through public auction, truck owners said.
The toll had also been increased instead of removing the toll plazas where the Union Government had recovered entire cost of the four-lane road laid by the National Highways Authority of India.
