Industries in and around Chennai have lost around Rs 4,000 crore due to the ongoing strike by trailer operators at the Chennai port, which entered the ninth day on Sunday. Similarly feeder operators are also reportedly making losses to the tune of $140,000 daily.
The Trailer Owners Association (TOA) decided not to move any container to and from the Chennai port from midnight of December 19, to draw the attention of the Centre and the state government to the poor condition of Ennore-Manali road, which handles over 70 per cent of the cargo. The 10-year-old Ennore-Manalii road connectivity project is yet to see the light of the day.
As on Sunday, over 11,000 import and export containers were stuck inside the port, a senior industry representative said. On an average, 3,000 containers move in and out of the port. These containers carry mainly raw materials, components and machinery, worth Rs 10 lakh to Rs 1 crore.
Of the total 3,000 containers, imports comprise 50 per cent. Sources said raw materials and components meant for industries, including for automobile majors, accounts for 90 per cent valued at around Rs 1,500 crore. If these raw materials and components are converted into finished products the value could be over Rs 4,000 crore.
The value of export, on the other hand, has become nil for the last 10 days and is estimated to be around of Rs 1,500 crore.
Meanwhile, a leading feeder operator said there were about six feeder vessel operators connecting the Chennai port with various international ports including transshipment ports of Singapore and Colombo. These are now operating with zero export containers for the last one week.
Each operator is losing $20,000 per day on an average. In fact, one vessel service has already called off.
Additional Rs 2 crore sanctioned for the project
The trade and industry are hopeful that the strike would be withdrawn on Monday, following a board meeting of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) held here on Saturday.
During the meeting, an additional Rs 2 crore was sanctioned to expedite the road strengthening work that is currently under way on the stretch. Earlier, NHAI had sanctioned Rs 4.5 crore for the work.
The board, which is again planning to meet on January 9, is expected to take a final call on the project. The value of the project, to be implemented through a special purpose vehicle, has increased to over Rs 600 crore now, as compared with Rs 150 crore.
Meanwhile a press release from the Chennai Port Trust on Saturday said of the 9km stretch of the Tiruvottiyur-Ponneri-Panchetti road, 7 km has already been laid with bitumen and work on the remaining 2 km is being executed with the assistance of Chennai Port, Ennore Port Ltd and NHAI through the Tamil Nadu Road Development Corporation.
A total of Rs 13.10 crore has been earmarked for repairing the Manali Oil Refinery Road and the Inner Ring Road, the release said.
