By Bizodisha Bhubaneswar, November 2015 : About 4,000 truck owners have stopped transportation of iron ore from Koida mining circle in Sundargarh district to private industries from Monday in protest against the freight rates fixed by the state Transport Department.

More truck operators are expected likely to join the stir and refrain from transporting minerals to consuming industries till some contentious provisions in the freight rates get cleared.

Coordinator of 10 truck owners’ associations and Rourkela Tipper Owners’ Association (RTOA) functionary Bijay Pradhan said a demonstration will be staged in front of Regional Transport Office here on November 13. And, on failure of the Government to meet the demands all members of the 10 associations would stop transportation of minerals from Koida mining circle.

The truck owners led by RTOA had stopped mineral transportation in June this year, claiming that freight rates offered by the consuming industries were unreasonably less.

Following the claim, Transport Department issued a notification in August prescribing maximum freight rate of Rs 6.4/km for six-wheel truck, Rs 5.4/km for 10-wheel truck and Rs 4.1/km for 12-wheel truck, but there was no mention of minimum freight.

Pradhan said at a meeting called by Sundargarh district administration in September the issue of ‘maximum’ freight rates was raised.

“The new freight rates have no mention of minimum limits and the consuming industries started ‘exploiting’ the operators by offering unreasonably low freight,” Pradhan said.

“In the absence of further clarification from the Transport Department, we have no option but to sit idle instead of incurring losses by engaging vehicles”, he said.