BHUBANESWAR | Jun 18, 2015: The state government has decided to put in place a uniform pricing system for transportation agencies from July 1 to stop overcharging by trucks carrying minerals.
Officials sources said since 2008-09 when demand and price of minerals, particularly iron ore, went up in the international market, truckers in mineral-bearing districts started charging very high rates. They are continuing to do so, official sources said.
The commerce and transport department has asked the district collectors of five districts - Jajpur, Keonjhar, Sundargarh, Angul and Jagatsinghpur - to submit a ceiling price for truckers for transportation of minerals.
"So far only Keonjhar district has submitted the ceiling price. The chief secretary has asked collectors of other districts to submit the ceiling price following which a state-level technical committee would determine the transportation cost. We are planning to implement it from July 1," said director of mines Deepak Mohanty here on Wednesday.
On May 15, the state government decided to put in place an online tendering process for fixation of rates for transportation of minerals by road from different pitheads. "We are in the process of launching the online mechanism. Till then, the truckers can charge the rates to be fixed by district collectors," said Mohanty.
According to sources, in the e-auction process the Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) will fix a base price for road transportation of minerals. The truck owners and transport agencies will be asked to go for reverse bidding to get the transport order.
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, who earlier complained of such high rate charged by the transporting agencies, welcomed the move.
(Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/)