CHENNAI: The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) is continuing its extensive searches in Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkata ports besides the container depot in Tughlaqabad for the fourth day following a tip off that consignments of fake Indian currency and arms have reached the country’s shores.
This has resulted in congestion in some ports as additional customs and excise official other than those posted in the ports have been requisitioned to ensure free movement of trucks into the ports.
Traffic has been hit due to rigorous searches being carried out by DRI sleuths in these ports.
Sources told Express that till now the searches have not yielded anything.
Meanwhile, traffic continued to pile up near the Chennai Port as the searches continued. Chennai Port officials told Express that the outbound cargo movement in the port has returned to normal from Sunday.
“Yesterday, Chennai Port recorded a movement of nearly 1,600 trucks carrying goods for outbound cargo. This confirms that normalcy has been restored. However, the flow of trucks carrying incoming cargo has yet to get normal.
“We had only 1,100 trucks carrying the incoming cargo against the normal level of above 1,300 a day,” an official said.
The official added that additional officials from customs department and Central Industrial Security Force Personnel have been deployed to ensure free movement of trucks. It is learnt that each and every container is checked minutely. The instructions to carry out the searches has come directly from the Prime Minister’s Office.