The 67 days long deadlock between the truck operators’ union and the Adani group-owned cement plants in Himachal Pradesh’s Barmana and Darlaghat over freight charges ended on Monday after the intervention of Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu.
In a meeting held in Shimla, chaired by the Chief Minister, both sides agreed on the freight rates, and the company management assured to resume cement production from February 21.
The operations at cement plants situated at Barmana in Bilaspur district and Darlaghat in Solan district were closed by the company in December 2022, amid a dispute over freight charges between the truck operators and the company.
“Both the cement management companies and the truck operators have settled upon the new rates which will be ₹10.30 per kilometre per metric tonne for single-axle and ₹9.30 per kilometre per metric tonne for multi-axle. The factory management has given its consent to resume the cement production from tomorrow and truck operators have also agreed to transport at these rates,” said Mr. Sukhu.
“It’s due to the coordinated efforts of all, an acceptable solution to this matter has been possible. This dispute erupted soon after our government assumed power and the cement factory management announced to stop the production. Truck operators had gone on strike on December 16, 2022. Thereafter, the State government continued to hold talks with truck operators and factory management. After the change of ownership of the cement factories located at Darlaghat and Barmana, the management refused to provide freight at the old rates and from here the dispute escalated,” he said.
The Chief Minister said that both parties suffered a loss due to the stalemate, besides other stakeholders. “We arrived at a consensus, thereby protecting the interests of both the truck operators unions and the management as well, besides the welfare of all others who were being directly or indirectly hit by the stalemate,” said Mr. Sukhu.
