Over 10K trucks to keep off roads in Kovai today

COIMBATORE: As many as 10,000 lorries will remain off the road on Thursday, extending their support to the nation-wide lorry strike condemning the move of the Central government in connection with penalties for overloading.

According to Kovai district lorry owner’s association president Kalayaperumal, container lorries were off the road for the past two days in Chennai.

Extending support, truck owners across the nation plan to take 90 lakh trucks off the roads on Thursday, while 4.5 lakh lorries across Tamil Nadu including 10,000 lorries in Coimbatore district, will remain off the roads creating a revenue loss of around Rs 10 crore.

The state and Central governments have already increased vehicle registration fee, FC, insurance and toll fares. While so, fuel price is continuously increasing which will result in a hike in price of essential goods.

“Many industries are already downing shutters and are facing layoffs following the current economic recession. Such heavy penalty will lead to serious consequences,” added Kalayaperumal.

Lorry owners in Namakkal and Salem are also expected to take part in the nationwide strike on September 19.

The All India Motor Transport Congress has announced a nationwide strike on September 19, demanding the Centre’s withdrawal of the recently announced amendments to the Motor Vehicles Act and revision of the hefty fine amounts for traffic rule violations.

The truckers’ key demands include reduction in central and state taxes by getting diesel under the GST and reforming the ‘flawed and non-transparent’ toll collection system.