Industries in the area have suffered a combined loss of up to Rs.4 billion (approx $100 million) in the past fortnight of violence.
The immediate fallout could be a steep increase in the cost of labour, which in turn would lead to a hike - almost double in some cases - in the prices of goods manufactured in the industrial belt.
"The prices of steel products, electrical equipment and automobile parts are expected to nearly double in the coming weeks. The situation is a direct fallout of the non-availability of cheap, unskilled labour," Nashik Industrial Manufacturers' Association (NIMA) chairperson Abhay Kulkarni told IANS.
According to NIMA's estimates, nearly 30,000 labourers have left the industrial belt in the past two weeks of unrest sparked by the Raj Thackeray-led MNS. Many taxi drivers and street vendors were assaulted in Mumbai and a man in Nashik lost his life in the violence.
Apprehending more violence, the migrant workers have gone back to their homes in Bihar or Uttar Pradesh.
As a general rule, these labourers are recruited by agents who supply them to construction firms or small-scale industries for a lower minimal wage settlement.
In the process, the agents get huge commissions from firms for providing them with cheap labour.
The daily wages range between Rs.40 to Rs.300 depending on the nature of the work, Kulkarni said.
But in the current scenario, getting cheap labour is the biggest problem faced by the industry and there seems to be
