Kashmir Uncertainty: All major Cement plants shut; construction work on halt
Non-availability of commercial transport; non local labourers major cause of closure of Cement plants
5 Dariya News
Srinagar 25-Sep-2019
The leading cement plants of the valley continue to remain closed on the 52nd consecutive day due to the non-availability of commercial vehicles and non-local man force.According to the wire service Kashmir News Observer (KNO), the life in the valley continues to remain off the rails as the prevailing uneasy calm seems to be have no end. According to employees of various Cement plants, the valley based cement plants remain shut due to the ongoing uncertainty which have hampered all the major construction projects due to the unavailability of cement production.“The suspension of manufacturing operations due to the non-availability of non-local labourers and the commercial transport services left hundreds of locals jobless besides leaving all the major construction plants shut,” an employee told KNO.Adil Sofi, a private construction manager told the wire service KNO that, “I usually use the local cement brand in all our construction projects but since August 5, those brands are out of stock.”He told KNO that the non-local cement brands are acquired at higher costs of about Rs 150 -Rs 200 per bag additional which directly impacts on their allocated resources. He further said that, “This is not the first time we are witnessing the shortage of the local cement brands in the valley which not only affects our budgets but also disturbs our construction cycle as well.”Abdul Rashid, a worker at a local cement manufacturing unit told the wire service KNO,” We have suspended all the manufacturing operations at our plant since Aug 4 due to the unavailability of non-local workers in the plant. The operations continues to remain on a halt.”He told KNO that in the aftermath of abrogation of Article 370 most of their expertise and non-local labourers left Kashmir leaving their plant operations on halt. He further told KNO,” On a single day basis our plant used to dispatch about 200 vehicles of cement to our associated dealers in the valley, but now due to the prevailing situation not even a single bag is processed at our plant.” (KNO)