Haridwar, July 27 (KNN) A month long Kanwar Yatra, which is extremely popular in the northern states of India during holy month of Sawan, is posing severe challenge for industries in Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Uttarakhand due to heavy crowd of devotees.

Kanwariyas from all states and cities of India make a journey to Haridwar, Gangotri, and Gaumukh in the state of Uttarakhand due to which roads get blocked and due to heavy congestion on the roads industries find it difficult to transport their finished goods to the destination.

This causes a huge financial loss to them, according to industry association from UP and Uttarakhand.

Also, the highway that joins UP and Haryana were closed at the entry points and has affected most of the industries in transporting their finished goods and raw materials.

Speaking with KNN India, General Secretary of Bhagwanpur Industries Association (BIA), Gautam Kapoor said, “The congestion is affecting the industrial community. Due to the heavy crowd of devotees, it has become difficult for us to run our business as availability of raw material is in its crunch. As same, finished goods are not being moved out.”

Many factories have been shut down in the area seeing this scenario as there is no production going on. Industries which are in operation are running one shift only, he added.

Chapter chairman of Indian Industries Association (IIA) from Ghaziabad region, Manoj Kumar said, “Nearly 2000 to 2500 industries in Ghaziabad, majority of which that are manufacturing units have stopped their production for a while due to heavy congestion on roads.”

He said, during this month, roads get blocked due to heavy crowd of devotees and thus transportation of goods becomes a major challenge for them.

However, small road sides businesses selling items like Gangajalis, safforon t-shirts and kurtas, holy books and images of lord shiva etc. are doing well during this holy month.