Goods stuck, importers face heavy losses

Our Correspondent

Fatehgarh Sahib, November 5

The ‘rail roko’ agitation of farmers has not only caused acute shortage of raw material for the iron and steel industry, but has also caused heavy losses to the government as well as importers.

Industry under tremendous pressure

The industry is already under tremendous pressure due to the pandemic and now, the ongoing protest by farmers has brought almost everything to a standstill. Ishu Bansal, president, north india importers’ association

Thousands of containers carrying imported scrap have been in transit since September from a sea port to Ludhiana but nobody knows where the trains carrying these containers are stationed and when will they reach the Ludhiana Container Freight Station. The shortage has also caused a setback to the domestic industry, particularly in Mandi Gobindgarh, which is Asia’s largest steel town. “The trade and industry in Punjab is already under tremendous pressure due to the Covid-19 pandemic and now, the ongoing protest by farmers has brought almost everything to a standstill,”

said Ishu Bansal, president of the North India Importers’ Association.

He said the protesting farmers were not allowing movement of goods, which was causing delay in shipments and timely deliveries of consignments to their overseas clients. This may result in cancellation of import orders and would also affect their future prospects. He said approximately 4,000 export containers were stuck at various points across Punjab.

He said due to the ongoing situation, traders had requested the Railways to return their containers from the trains so that the same could be sent via roads, but no one had heeded their request.