Operations were suspended at both the ports - the old anchorage port as well as the new deep water port - here on Tuesday, as the workers and employees stayed away in protest against the decision of the UPA and the Congress Working Committee to form the state of Telangana.
According to trade sources, 26 ships were stranded at both the ports. Rice and maize are being exported from the old port and the steel barge workers struck work in response to the call given by their associations. No cargo handling could be carried out at the new port as well.
D. Surya Rao, the president of the Cocanada Chamber of Commerce, said it was a one-day strike and the trade and workers had given full support to it in solidarity with Samaikhya Andhra agitation.
He described the decision of the Congress Working Committee and the UPA as "unfortunate and disastrous in all respects" and he appealed to the Union Government to reconsider it. He said the Kakinada port would be adversely affected by the decision.
"Telangana is in our hinterland. We get maize and some quantity of rice, and other commodities from the region. There will be an additional dose of taxation and the trade cannot absorb it, as the margins are thin," he explained.