Transporters unwilling to move out of Agra

The plans for restructuring Agra’s commercial areas in accordance with the new Master Plan 2021 are in choppy waters.

While the dairy and petha units have refused to be moved to the city’s outskirts, transporters too have come out forcefully against their shifting from the riverside area to the Agra-Delhi highway.

According to Agra Development Authority sources, under the new development project report proposed for the urban restructuring of Agra, the commercial areas are to be segregated from the residential enclaves and at present, moving the leather tanning, petha and dairy industry outside the city is the most challenging task faced by the administration.

Sources said the bulk kirana market had been moved from inside the city to the Agra-Kanpur road while most of the artificial jewellery units were establishing themselves in the same area.

To make tourist flow from Delhi and Kanpur to the Taj Mahal easier, moving about 350 transport agencies operating from inside the city to Transport Nagar on the Agra-Delhi highway is imperative; there these transporters will be allocated plots to set up agencies.

These transport agencies have been served notice to move out immediately; otherwise the administration would be forced to seal their offices, sources said.

The transporters are not willing to be easily bogged down by the threat of sealing. In a meeting of the Agra Goods Carriers Association, Retail Transport Association and Mini Truck Public Carrier Association held in Agra on Monday, a resolution was passed that none of the transporters would move out of the city unless the administration established a new transport enclave at a different location.

If they are forced to move, the transporters have threatened to go on an indefinite strike, shutting down transportation in and out of the city.