BHUBANESWAR: The State Government has decided to revise the freight rate for transportation of minerals in five districts for the second time since August last year.
Informing about the proposed revision to the media on Thursday, Minister of State for Commerce and Transport Ramesh Chandra Majhi said a decision on mineral transportation charges will be taken after consulting truck owners.
The State Government had issued a notification in August last year putting a ceiling on freight rate for mineral transport in Angul, Jajpur, Keonjhar, Sundargarh and Jagatsinghpur districts.
Opposing the freight rate, truck owners of Keonjhar had staged a dharna and stopped transportation which badly hit the mineral transport in the district for the last five days.
Besides, the Mini Truck Owners’ Association had challenged the State Government decision in the Orissa High Court. The High Court has directed the State Government to direct the Transport Commissioner to resolve the issue by holding discussion with truck owners and Collectors of the five districts.
The Minister said the Government will take a decision on the basis of the recommendations of district Collectors and the technical committee.
Earlier, a technical committee of the Government had recommended the ceiling rates taking into consideration factors like volume of ore transported through trucks, road and traffic condition.
The ceiling rate was binding on all registered transport agencies and it was aimed at to rein in unfair trade practices by transporters. The freight rate has been fixed at `4.56 per tonne per km for six-wheelers, `3.65 for 10-wheelers and `2.9 for 12-wheelers. For transportation beyond 100 km per day, the ceiling on freight is fixed at `6.38 per tonne/km for six-wheelers, `5.11 for 10-wheelers and `4.06 for 12-wheelers respectively.
For locally moving trucks and tippers, the freight charges upto 100 km has been fixed at `2,000 per day plus twice the running cost or `3500, whichever is higher.