Shimla, Jan 19 (PTI) Hundreds of truckers from Bilaspur and Solan districts on Thursday took out a foot march trudging 12 km distance to protest against the closure of two cement plants.

The truckers demanding the immediate opening of cement plants gathered at Nauni in Bilaspur district and marched towards the office of the Deputy Commissioner to hand over the memorandum.

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Due to the grounding of trucks, the only source of income of operators and their staff has been blocked and they are facing acute financial problems, said a truck operator.

The two cement plants at Barmana (ACC) and Darlaghat (Ambuja Cements) are closed for the past 35 days, following a dispute over freight charges and operators engaged in carriage of cement and clinkers are on roads.

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The Adani group which owns both ACC Limited and Ambuja Cements closed these plants on December 14, citing high transportation cost.

The management had been asking truck operators to lower the freight rates to Rs 6 per tonne per km (PTPK). However the truck unions rejected the demand.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)