In one of the numerous lorry-fabrication workshops in Namakkal, a fabricator hammers away at one of a fleet of trucks he and his team of workmen is building to transport poultry across the State. Taking a break from his shift, R. Raghu, the workman, says he comes from a long line of truck builders, dating back to a century.
“Most of the [truck-body] builders from the area have descended from workers who used to build bullock carts before mechanised transport services came in,” he says.
Namakkal, the lorry fabrication and building capital of the south, is believed to have over 5,000 builders directly employed by around 90 fabricators building specialised trucks for a variety of purposes, including the transport of petroleum, water, edible oil, coal, poultry and other goods. “These trucks are the lifeline of many industries, ensuring that goods are transported across the country,” says P. Thiyagarajan, proprietor of Shree Gowriamman Industries, one of the largest truck-body fabricators in the district.
