300 Trucks Stuck at Assam‑West Bengal Border; Andhra Lorry Owners Call for Central Help

The Andhra Pradesh Lorry Owners’ Association (APLOA) is sounding the alarm. Over three‑hundred trucks, most of them loaded with raw petroleum coke, have been sitting at the Assam‑West Bengal border for days, unable to move forward.

Y.V. Eswara Rao, the association’s general secretary, told reporters that about half of those trucks were bound for the Visakhapatnam port, while the rest were headed to Haldia, Durgapur, Barauni and Paradip. "The trucks have been stranded for several days now, and it is choking the flow of goods to Andhra Pradesh and other states," he said, his tone a mix of frustration and worry.

APLOA says the vehicles are fully compliant with GST and have already paid Integrated GST (IGST), yet they are still being held up. The association has formally written to the Union Finance Ministry and the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), urging them to step in and sort out the mess.

For the owners, the loss is not just abstract. P. Venkata Siva Nagaraju, a lorry owner from Vijayawada, shared that three of his brand‑new trucks have been stuck at a West Bengal outpost for more than a month. "I’ve lost over ₹2 lakh on each vehicle already," he lamented. The drivers, far from home, are also bearing the emotional toll – tired, anxious and unable to see their families.

The impasse is hurting not only the transporters but also the downstream industries that rely on the coke. Rain CII Carbon (Vizag) Ltd., a major buyer, has seen its raw material shipments delayed, affecting production schedules.

APLOA hopes that a swift directive from the Centre will clear the bottleneck, get the trucks moving again, and prevent further financial damage to countless operators and businesses across the region.