As courier firms close, supply of life saving drugs from Zirakpur warehouses to northern region hit

For the last one month medicines are being dumped in Zirakpur’s godowns and there is no supply outside the district

With courier companies shut since the March 22 curfew was imposed to stop transmission of Covid-19, owners of carrying and forwarding (C&F) companies providing warehousing facilities to pharma units in Zirakpur are struggling to ensure supply of medicines to the region.

With courier companies shut since the March 22 curfew was imposed to stop transmission of Covid-19, owners of carrying and forwarding (C&F) companies providing warehousing facilities to pharma units in Zirakpur are struggling to ensure supply of medicines to the region. (Sanjeev Sharma/HT)

The Phabat godown area has about 400 big and small warehouses for nearly 90 companies, especially for pharma units, from where medicines, including life saving drugs are supplied to Punjab, Chandigarh, Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir.

“Regular local couriers with branches in all parts of the region have been closed due to which the supply chain has been hit badly,” said Amit Jain, president of the C&F Association of Zirakpur.

“With restrictions on movement the courier companies do not want to commit to on-time delivery as the most critical part is ensuring delivery within the stipulated time,” adds a courier company manager in Zirakpur not willing to be named.

For the last one month medicines are being dumped in Zirakpur’s godowns and there is no supply outside the district.

On the need for refrigeration, Sanjeev Bansal, who provides C&F services to three pharma companies, says “The maintenance of cold chain is essential in the supply of drugs. The courier companies given vaccines after removing these from storage at a regulated temperature move them to the ice box. These vaccines have to be delivered within the stipulated period not beyond 48 hours.”

He says he is getting enquiries about the supply of medicines, “but we cannot assure them delivery. There is a need to allow operation of courier services to facilitate transportation of life saving drugs.”

MOVEMENT OF EMPLOYEES ANOTHER PROBLEM

C&F owners also complain that their employees are facing problems moving around the city despite having curfew passes. “They are being stopped despite having passes for various reasons. Chandigarh police is not allowing staff to come to Zirakpur so we are writing to the authorities in Chandigarh to ensure that at least those with passes are not stopped,” says Jain.

The employees are not only needed to maintain the supply chain but also to ensure optimum temperature for storage of vaccines. “We are working with skeletal staff but they are facing a lot of problems reporting for work,” he adds.

The association has also written to the Punjab government to provide insurance cover to the pharma C&F owners and staff.