Truck drivers, cleaners call off strike

Bowing to the pressure from the various stakeholders, the Chennai Port Trust (ChPT) in association with Customs officials on Tuesday opened Gate 10 for tippers, containers and general cargo.

Following this, the truck drivers and cleaners called off their three-day strike. Even then they asked the ChPT officials to open up Gates 2 and 2A to reduce their dependence on ‘0' gate and to repair the badly affected Ennore-Manali road.

Responding to their request, ChPT Chairman Atulya Misra said that efforts would be made to open up Gate 2 and 2A in the next three days and they required at least 10 days to complete the patch work on Ennore-Manali stretch.

Customs officials posted at gate

“So far, Gate 10 was opened only during nights. Two Customs officials are posted at this gate to facilitate outward movement of tippers, tankers and trailers from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. However, police officials are hesitant to allow inward movement of containers as it would create traffic congestion,” said a ChPT official.

Talking to

The Hindu , K. Asai Thambi of Anna Labour Union said “we have deferred our strike for the time being and have asked the authorities concerned to set right the damaged road within the stipulated period, failing which we will resume our strike once again on January 3.”

According to trade sources, nearly 11,000 import boxes belonging to both the terminals are stacked in the two terminals. Gate 10 will be used for evacuating nearly 3,000 import boxes of Chennai International Terminals Pvt Ltd (CITPL), while Chennai Container Terminal will use ‘0' gate for evacuating the import boxes.