Tankers carrying bulk LPG cooking gas are back on the road in South after a week long strike. Vehicle owners withdrew the strike last midnight following a request from the Tamil Nadu Government.

The indefinite strike from March 3 was to seek an increase in freight to Rs 3.99 per metric tonne per round-trip km from the existing Rs 2.24. The oil companies, however, were not willing to pay above Rs 2.50, said Mr N.R. Karthik, Secretary, Southern Region Bulk LPG Transport Owners Association, Namakkal.

State Government officials told members of Southern Region Bulk LPG Transport Owners Association that strike affected the public and should be withdrawn immediately. “The State Government assured us to take up our views with the Centre,” Mr Karthik said.

Nearly 12,000 vehicles, including 4,000 from Namakkal, in the South are involved in the last link in the supply of bulk LPG supply chain. They transport LPG to bottling points from various loading centres. Namakkal in southern Tamil Nadu is the hub for truck industry in the South.

Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum jointly said that transporters were holding consumers and oil companies to ransom with unreasonable demands.

This was disputed by the transporters who said that the increase in labour cost and diesel price justified the hike.

Transporters in the South went on strike for the first time from January 12-19 demanding a rate of Rs 3.99 in a tender floated by the oil companies in October 2011. The existing rate was Rs 2.24, which means a hike of 78 per cent. They went on a strike again last week.

After various rounds of negotiations, the oil companies offered a price of Rs 2.50, which was not acceptable to the transporters, said Mr P. Mohan, a vehicle owner. “We are going to run the vehicles at a huge loss,” he said.

>raja@thehindu.co.in

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