Belagavi's cane farmers lifted their NH-48 blockades on Wednesday evening1 and turned on the sugar mills instead, so the trucks are moving and the cane tractors aren't. Punjab is shut today for a bandh, with a highway block near Jalandhar from 10 to 2. And two more ships sank at Hormuz2, while wholesale prices hit a record 11.39% in September, with fuel and power up about a quarter3.
Green the sale season as usual, which can still be busy
Amber something beyond the season is slowing freight
Red something is stopping freight across a state or a route
a hub not rated today
North
Amber
Punjab is shut today for a bandh over the killing of anti-drug activist Parminder Singh Jhota in Mansa; farm unions and traders back it, and toll workers say plazas will be free10. Police have barricaded the roads into Mansa, and buses on the Barnala road didn't turn up yesterday11. So loads into south Punjab wait a day, and shops that shut won't take deliveries.
West
Amber
The cane farmers have moved from the highway to the sugar mills: from today they march on mills in Satara and Sangli, to stop sugar leaving the warehouses and cane reaching the mills12. Tuesday's three-hour block on the Pune–Solapur highway at Bhimanagar left queues of 2 to 2.5 km13. So sugar from western Maharashtra can be held mill by mill, and a highway can stop for hours without notice.
South
Amber
Karnataka's farmers cleared their blockades at Bankapur and Yarikoppa late on Wednesday and are walking to Dharwad and Hubballi instead1. The trucks that queued there since Tuesday are moving, slowly, so I'd expect Pune–Bengaluru loads to run a day or two behind while the queue clears.
East
Amber
Kalinga ghat is still shut, so Berhampur–Phulbani trucks go the long way round. Paradip, meanwhile, loaded a record 140,022 tonnes of coal in a day on 10th October14, so the coal berths, at least, are keeping up. Kolkata's Puja curbs are the usual strain5: deliveries into the city run in set hours, no slower than the season. And from Saturday Petrapole stops taking cargo for Bangladesh.
Northeast
Amber
The coke trucks held at the Bengal border are the Northeast's one disruption, and the latest report is from Tuesday. So I'm rating it as if they're still stuck: Assam coke for plants outside the state stays held.
Central
Green
No delay beyond the season.
Network Insights
1Two more ships sink at Hormuz
Sea freight from India to the Gulf ports
Amber · High cost of delay · High confidence
GFS Pride, a Singapore-flagged container ship of 2,824 TEU, sank near the Strait of Hormuz after being hit by a projectile2. A day later GFS Giselle, a second container ship from the same company, was hit and damaged15. Cape Dao, a bulk carrier hit on 23rd September, went down too16. Attacks have surged over the past 10 days, mostly on tankers, but container ships have been hit, stopped or sunk as well16.
Exporters shipping to Jebel Ali, Dammam, Kuwait and Qatar, the ports inside the strait, are the ones at risk. A box that still goes the short way is now a war risk, and the detours round it are slower and dearer.
2Wholesale prices hit a record
High confidence
Wholesale prices, September, % above a year ago (August in brackets)3
Fuel and power25.9% (22.9%)
All goods11.4% (9.9%)
Wholesale prices are at a series high, with fuel and power leading, and ICRA expects 12% in October and double digits through December3. Does diesel get cheaper soon? The IEA actually thinks not: world diesel supply falls short of demand this quarter, and the stocks lost in the war won't be rebuilt before the second half of 202717.
Shippers with a fuel clause in their freight contracts carry this: each reset is dearer than the last, well into next year.
3Saudi cargo goes by road
Air exports from India to Saudi Arabia
Amber · High cost of delay · Medium confidence
Riyadh's main airport has been shut since a Houthi attack on 10th October, and Logistics Insider reports freighters going to Jeddah or Dammam, with the cargo finishing the trip by road18. Is that the end of it? Well, no: a notice now keeps Riyadh closed until the evening of 17th October, and Air France-KLM has cancelled Riyadh to the end of the month, so belly space stays short after the runway opens18.
Indian perishables and urgent parts bound for Riyadh are the ones at risk: the road leg from Jeddah or Dammam adds time and another handling, and fruit doesn't wait.
The lanes I'm watching
NH-48 Pune–BengaluruAmber
Kognoli, Hattargi, Bankapur, Yarikoppa
The blockade ended on Wednesday evening after 31 hours, with about 150 heavy vehicles stuck on the Maharashtra side alone12. At Hattargi one side opened first, with the other expected by midnight19. Amber for a few days, while the queue works through.
NH-44 Jalandhar–PhagwaraAmber
Punjab bandh
BKU Doaba says it will block the Jalandhar–Phagwara stretch from 10 am to 2 pm today4. Trucks on the Delhi–Amritsar road wait out four hours near Jalandhar, or don't set out till the afternoon.
NH-27 at SrirampurAmber
The Northeast's road out
As of Tuesday, more than 300 trucks of Assam coke were held at the border, waiting since 17th September with their GST papers complete, and paying ₹4 lakh to ₹5 lakh a day in detention20.
NH-157 Kalinga ghatAmber
Ganjam to Kandhamal, Odisha
Shut for 20 days as of Tuesday, with light vehicles allowed through only 10–15 days after repairs finish21. Berhampur–Phulbani trucks take the long way round, adding hours each way.
Measured this morning
City roads against usual, daily, 8–14 Oct22amber = 10+ over
Kolkata, Delhi and Chennai stand out: 10+ points over usual on 14 Oct, Kolkata on 5 of the last 7 days, Delhi on 5 and Chennai on 1.
Kolkata+18
Delhi+13
Chennai+12
Mumbai+9
Pune+7
Hyderabad+7
Bengaluru+7
Ahmedabad+4
Jaipur+3
Kochi+1
How this is made
At 7 every morning, Claude drafts this page on its own using data available from public sources only. It reads the morning's public signals: city traffic in ten cities, the JNPA and Paradip port reports, ship queues at the container ports, toll-plaza truck counts, the seasonal calendar and about twenty news searches.
Then it writes, and a set of checks decides whether the draft is even fit for me to read. Every claim has to be opened and cited, and no source can be over a week old without a reason. No story from the last seven days comes back unless it actually moved, and nothing gets said twice.
I read it, argue with it, fix what's wrong and approve it. The ratings are my judgement on the likelihood of on-time delivery or cost-impact, not measured service levels or actual cost estimates. Confidence is High when the facts are dated and primary or measured, Medium when they rest on a proxy or a forecast. Does that make the page right? Not always, which is why the calls get scored.