Two cement plants at Barmana (Bilaspur district) and Darlaghat (Solan district) owned by ACC Limited and Ambuja Cements, respectively, have been closed due to a dispute over freight charges, and operators engaged in carriage of cement and clinkers are on the roads.
The transporters’ union representing truckers engaged by two Adani Group-owned cement plants in Bilaspur and Solan districts will consult all stakeholders and submit their proposed freight rates to the government by Friday, according to an official statement issued here.
Two cement plants at Barmana (Bilaspur district) and Darlaghat (Solan district) owned by ACC Limited and Ambuja Cements, respectively, have been closed due to a dispute over freight charges, and operators engaged in carriage of cement and clinkers are on the roads.
The Adani Group, which owns both ACC Limited and Ambuja Cements, closed these plants on December 14, citing high transportation costs.
To resolve the deadlock, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu has urged all legislators of Bilaspur district to participate in a meeting on February 3. He said the state government was making concerted efforts to resolve the stalemate amicably at the earliest.
On Wednesday, Sukhu maintained that his government was with the truck operators and would not tolerate any exploitation of truckers. He had urged them to submit their proposed freight rates to the government so that it could take up the matter with the company.
There are about 6,500 trucks attached to the two cement plants and the grounding of trucks has hit the livelihood of thousands of families. The only source of income of operators and their staff members has been blocked and they are facing acute financial problems, representatives of truck unions had said earlier.
Ajay Kapur, the CEO of the conglomerate’s cement business, had said in a letter to the chairman of the Permanent Standing Committee that the transportation market was completely controlled by the unions, which decide the rates and deployment of trucks.
This forced the company to close operations after the unions adopted an unworkable position on the freight rate and distribution model, he had said.
