Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, May 15, 2015 :

In a bid to standardize the mineral transportation pricing, the Odisha government on Friday finally gave its nod to introduce e-tender for truckers engaged in mineral transportation. Till date, transporters and truck unions are accused of resorting to arbitrary pricing.

Chairing over a meeting of officials, Pati asked the state owned Odisha Mining Corporation to develop a module to transport the minerals without much hassles.

This was decided at a meeting presidedover by Odisha Chief Secretary GC Pati here. Mining lease holders and representatives from industries participated in the meeting.

Pricing for transport of minerals on trucks has not been standardized. To put a check on such activities and streamline the pricing mechanism, the e-tender facility would be introduced through Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) for which a module would be developed within two months.

“We are going to introduce e-tendering facility for the engagement of transport agencies and truckers’ associations. We would also like to develop a module through OMC. The module would pick the eligible transporters and truckers associations to be engaged in mineral transportation. Till the module comes into being, the district-level technical committee under the chairmanship of the district Collector would fix the prices. They would communicate this to the commercial transport department, which in turn would notify the maximum price of each consignment depending on the distance, the state mines director Deepak Mohanty on Thursday told media persons.

A district-level technical committee headed by district Collector would be formed to determine the transport pricing. Collectors would submit their recommendations on pricing to the government within 15 days.

“We would come to know about the ground impact within one to two months after the implementation of the module. We welcome this step and we expect that it would bring transparency in the mineral transport system,” East Zone Miners’ Association (EZMA) Secretary, Prabodh Mohanty said.