4K containers stuck in Ludhiana: EEPC

Says goods worth crores are lying dead due to non-movement of trains

Tribune News Service

Updated At : 01:27 PM Oct 20, 2020 IST

Aakanksha N Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, October 19

Kamna Raj Aggarwalla, Regional Chairperson (NR) Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC) India today highlighted the problems faced by the industrialists. She said the issues such as non movement of the containers from Ludhiana, scarcity of empty containers for exporters, unavailability of raw material due to non-movement of trains has been troubling the industrialists.

“There are about 3,500-4000 containers containing goods that have been stuck in Ludhiana. These containers are ready to move. The lowest cost container is worth Rs 25 lakh to Rs 30 lakh. So, if we make an approximation, the amount goes to hundreds of crores that is ready to move but is lying dead. This is only the figures of Ludhiana. This is just the amount that is lying stuck there, we have goods in our factories, which are ready to move but it is not possible, so, this tells the gravity of the situation,” Aggarwalla said.

“Industries, including bicycles, fastener, hand tool, agriculture machinery, sports goods, hosiery, auto parts and rice are struggling to get the raw material and export of existing orders is not going in time due to the current situation of non movement of trains and unavailability of containers in Punjab.

The industrialists said this indicated the dire situation among the exporting community of Punjab. Tushar Jain, from EEPC also informed that the road transport was also not that useful due to national permit issues and it was costing a Punjab exporter INR 35,000 just to get the empty containers from Delhi.

Oaykay Tools owner Sharad Aggarwal said since the holiday season was approaching Europe, USA and Russia and most of the orders from these countries are for festive sale only, so, the buyers are also getting panicked and this situation was bringing them bad name to the Punjab exporters. “This may hamper the exports from Punjab in longer run as once we lose the trust of buyers there is a very little chance of getting the order from the same buyers,” he said.