Shimla: The 67 days stalemate between the truck operators and the Adani-backed Cement Company has finally ended.
Cement companies and the Truck operators have agreed upon ₹10.30 per kilometer per metric ton for single axle and ₹9.30 per kilometer per metric ton for multi-axle.
The factory management has given its consent to resume cement production from Tuesday and truck operators have also agreed to transport at these rates.
Talking informally with the media after the meeting, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh said that due to the coordinated efforts of all, an acceptable solution to this matter has been possible.
“We arrived on consensus, thereby protecting the interests of both the truck operator Unions and the management as well, besides the welfare of all others who were being directly or indirectly hit by the stalemate”, said the Chief Minister and further added that state government also didn’t want the factory management to suffer the loss. We are here to promote the industries in the State, the industries should be promoted and we are committed to providing them with a favourable environment, said the Chief Minister.
On the annual increase of freight, the Chief Minister said that the Principal Secretary, Industries and other officers would device chalk out a formula for matters related to the annual increase in freight rates.
With a claim of rising costs and high freight rates, the Adani-backed Ambuja Cement Plant Darlaghat and ACC Barmana cement companies shut down their operations on 15th December. Truck operators also refused to bow down to the pressure of Cement Companies for reducing the freight rates and had gone on strike on December 16th 2022. Thereafter, the state government continued holding talks with truck operators and factory management. After the change of ownership of the cement factories located at Darlaghat and Barmana, the management refused to provide freight at the old rates and from here the dispute escalated.
