With no end in sight to the LPG transporters stir, Oil marketing companies today said supply of LPG has been hit in the four Southern States besides Goa and Puducherry.
Despite efforts by OMCs to resolve the issue, the Southern Region Bulk LPG Transport Owners Association have resorted to indefinite strike putting the LPG industry and lakhs of LPG cooking gas consumers to great hardship and inconvenience, Indian Oil Corporation said in a statement here.
The Association, representing 3,700 tanker lorries, pressing various demands including floating new transport rates and inducting about 500 truckers, are on "indefinite strike" since midnight of February 29.
The Association have been demanding fixing the transport rate between Rs 2.80-Rs 3.00 per tonne per kilometre whereas OMCs had offered to increase the present rate of Rs 2.23 per tonne per kilometre to Rs 2.50.
Claiming that the transport contractors have quoted higher transport rate by 78%, IOC said, "several rounds of negotiations were conducted with the transporters. [But] a settlement could not be reached due to the unreasonable demands made by them [contractors]...," IOC said.
Indian Oil Corporation said their talks with transport contractors in the Eastern parts of the country were concluded "successfully" at transport rates significantly "lower" than demanded by their counterparts in Southern region.