Bad roads in Himachal Pradesh’s apple heartland have severely affected transportation of apples to markets across the country, even as the state is set to produce a record harvest this time.
The issue even rocked the state assembly on the opening day of the monsoon session on Tuesday as the government came under fire from the Opposition for not doing enough.
The biggest bottleneck is the 80-km long Theog-Hatkoti main highway in Shimla district.
Around 60 per cent of the state’s apple produce passes on this route but the road is unfit for plying vehicles at many places.
The highway is being widened by Longijian Road & Construction company a Chinese firm.
But the heavy monsoon rains has turned the loose sliding mud from the hill sides into pools of slush and ruts causing frequent road blocks and huge traffic jams.
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Usually it takes about 3 hours to travel on this 80 km hill road but now often takes 8 to 10 hours say farmers.
“Truckkers are so fed up with the condition of this road that many have vowed not to return,” said Rajeev Chauhan, Chairman of the Himalayan Apple Growers’ Society.
“Many of the link roads in the apple belt are also in a bad shape due to which many of the transporters are exploiting the farmers by charging very high transportation costs,” Chauhan told Business Standard.
Some farmers said the price of transporting each apple box to markets had almost doubled in some cases.
The Chinese company building the road has been given 30 months to complete the widening work.With half the time already over the company is far behind schedule.
The state government says around a crore boxes(10 million) have already been sent outside the state.
Around 750 trucks are leaving the state borders every day.The apple harvest ends in mid October.