Normalcy was hit in north Chennai and the export and import activities inside the Chennai port on Thursday came to a grinding halt following a flash strike by trailer drivers.
About 5,000 containers were stranded at different places in the city and also inside the two container terminals due to the strike, which commenced on Wednesday evening.
As a ripple effect, serpentine queues of trailers holding export cargo choked the traffic along the arterial roads of north Chennai connecting Manali, Tiruvottiyur and Ennore.
The strike was triggered by a section of trailer drivers after ClSF officials seized seven vehicles after numbers mentioned on the containers and those in the documents didn’t match.
While a few sides of a container had one particular number, the manufacturing plate of the container had a different number.
This aroused suspicion that it could have been tampered with and CISF personnel handed over the containers to the police.
The police retained the vehicles along with the containers leading to the strike. Despite efforts by industry, shipping lines and container operators, the strike continued on Thursday, as the police refused to release five vehicles that were seized.
Two vehicles with containers were released after the shipping lines proved that the numbers were the same.
However, the trailer drivers questioned as to how they would be responsible for the mismatch in numbers.
“We have nothing to do with documents. If there is anything wrong, they should seize the containers alone and not the vehicles,” said a trailer driver.
The Chennai Customs House Clearance Agents Association president A.V. Vijayakumar evinced confidence that the issue would be sorted out by Friday.