With the biggest festival of the year round the corner, the truck operators are appre- hensive because of the restrictions on movement of such commercial vehicles in the city that have been imposed following the recent fatal accident in Behala.
The truck operators are demanding a solution of their problems at the earliest as the countdown for Durga Puja has already begun.
With a few weeks remaining for the upcoming mega festival, the demand for con- sumer and perishable items has gone up, according to the operators. Numerous trucks carrying such items are entering the city with the supply to various wholesale markets of the city like Posta, Shyambazar, Sealdah and so on.
However, entry of com- mercial vehicles in the city is now allowed only between 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. “Earlier, the tim- ing was between 10 p.m. to 8 a.m,” informed the general secretary of the Federation of West Bengal Truck Oper- ators’ Association, Sajal Ghosh, noting that this earlier win- dow has now been slashed by two hours.
“Also, the vehicles were allowed to offload the trucks and leave the wholesale mar- ket between 12 noon to 4 pm. But, now, restrictions have been imposed on this prac- tice also making it difficult for the truckers to empty their vehicles and leave the city due to unavailability of parking spaces in the wholesale mar- kets,” he added.
The problems cumulatively are impacting the truck movements and their business. The operators are apprehensive that if the problems remain unsolved, it could impact the Puja market.
A high level meeting between officials of the city traffic police, state transport minister Snehasis Chakraborty and the truckers’ body, Federation of West Bengal Truck Operators’ Association was held last Friday on the issues faced by the operators.
Officials of the city traffic police are said to have informed that the matter would be communicated to the commissioner of the city police to find a solution at the earliest.