Chennai: Telangana issue is creating problems for Tirupur’s apparel makers for the movement of goods by Andhra Pradesh roads. Trucks with textile material are stuck in the middle of their way and are not being able to reach their final destination at different locations of the country. This has lead to pilling of knitwear stock because the fresh bookings for consignments are stopped by the transporters.
Tamarind merchants from Erode too are suffering from similar situation that is blocked road reason being the prices of the tamarind have dropped badly somewhere by Rs 2,500/tonne. This was after the transporters did not made an attempt to take them to areas like Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra where there is good market space for them.

Due to the agitations and losses, truckers are trying to fix problems by following other directions connecting one place to another.

According to a witness, somewhere around 100 trucks with readymade apparels loaded in them travel towards the northern portion of the country from Tirupur, Palladam and Somanur almost every day. Goods weight of each truck is between 8-16 tonnes.

President of Tirupur Lorry Owners Association, CN Ramasamy said that trucks neither entered nor moved through the Hyderabad highway. Reason behind the grinding halt existing in different areas of Andhra Pradesh is the development process going in Telangana.

R Sugamaran, spokesman at All India Motor Congress explained that in the interior portions of Nellore, Chittor, Ananthapur, Cuddapah and few other places the traffic has been disrupted and even the vehicle movements are delayed by few hours again due to the road blockage and agitations.

According to Ramasamy, the apparel prices would get affected in Andhra Pradesh during the Christmas and New Year festive time and a hike of around 25% is expected if the situation continues for long.

Nalthambi, President of State Lorry Owner Federation of Tamil Nadu expressed another fear that the trucks might have to pay more in order to get permits for crossing states. Amount payment might get raised from Rs5, 000 to 10,000 every year, said Nalathambi. He also explained that Erode farmers are very much worried about the prices of tamarind that has been declined in weight from Rs 13,460 per tonne around 2 weeks back to Rs 11,000 as a result of agitation in Andhra Pradesh.