The Cauvery unrest has had a cascading effect on the hosiery industry in the Tirupur knitwear cluster. Vehicles bearing Tamil Nadu registrations are being stopped and damaged. So truck operators from Tamil Nadu are not confident of going through Karnataka. A good chunk of the hosiery cargo from the Tirupur cluster is now dispatched to the western and northern regions of the country through longer routes via Andhra Pradesh.

But then transport charges have shot up as the distances travelled are longer. Such increases in transportation charges shrink profits. The final costs on the products cannot be increased as many of the bulk orders are taken in advance with a fixed price quotation. There could even be losses if volume is lower or the costing does not have adequate buffer to minimise unexpected losses.

In any case cargoes have to be dispatched at any cost otherwise buyers would start sourcing from other clusters in the country. Trucks are used to send cargoes due to the flexibility of dispatching consignments even at the eleventh hour and also they could be sent to any destination, both of which are not possible through train. It is going to be quite a while before trucks start passing through Karnataka as usual.