By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, August 7, 2015 : Odisha government on Friday fixed ceiling price for mineral transportation in mineral bearing districts In a bid to rein in exorbitant prices charged by truck owners to carry minerals in the state.

An official notification was issued on Friday asking the State Transport Authority and regional transport authorities of the concerned district to strictly adhere to the government order.

The government in principle had decided to enforce ceiling charges for transportation of minerals in five mineral bearing districts of Angul, Jagatsinghpur, Keonjhar, Jajpur and Sundergarh. A technical committee was formed in each of the five districts headed by respective District Collectors to fix the ceiling price.

As per the notification, truckers can only charge Rs 4.56 as maximum freight rate in rupees as per running cost per km.per ton, It also has fixed different slabs for different categories.

Road transport charges for minerals in Odisha are very high as the truck owners, operating in cartel at different mines pitheads, arbitrarily jack up the prices. This was a trend which was continuing since 2008-09 when the demand and rates of minerals, particularly iron ore, had spiralled in the international market. Though the iron ore prices have come down since, the transporters were still charging very high rates to carry minerals, said a miner.

A couple of years ago, acting on the complaints of mine owners and mineral traders, the state government had fixed rates for mineral transport at different mine heads. However, the charges never dropped as district administrations could not implement the order in their respective area. The state government, meanwhile, has made it mandatory for all truck owners to register their vehicles to transport the minerals. Truck owners refusing to charge the rates fixed by tendering process will not be issued transit pass, according to today’s decision.

Mine owners and industry officials welcomed the move, but said, they will till proper analysis of the notification.

“The decision taken by the government is certainly a welcome step. But we will be able to know its workability once it gets implemented,” said P L Kandoi, president of All Odisha Steel Federation.