Stress laid on more transportation through railways
Taking into consideration the dire situation in mining sector, the State Task Force has decided to exclude the captive consumption from the annual cap on dispatch of iron ore from the Joda and Koida Circles. This is expected to help the industries which are facing a tough time.
As per an earlier decision of Task Force, capping of 44 million tonnes from Joda and 13 MT from Koida inclusive of dispatch from captive mines forced some mines to close down. Before such a capping, it was decided to go in for 40 MT from Joda and 12 MT from Koida and 20 MT for captive consumption.
Chief Secretary JK Mohapatra chaired the meeting of the Task Force, which reviewed the situation in the mineral sector.
Available data show that the mining revenue collection up to December, 2013 has been to the tune of `3,894 crore against `3,803 crore for the corresponding period during 2012.
The dispatch of minerals up to December 2013 has been 40.58 MT against 36.81 MT for the corresponding period in last year. The production of minerals, as targeted, has been reduced to 40.05 MT by December 2013 against a total production of 42.97MT during the same period in 2012.
A regular monitoring of dispatch and control of illegal mining has resulted in more dispatch and less exploitation of natural resources. At present, 31 iron ore mines, 12 manganese mines and 20 iron ore and manganese mines are working in the State. Many mines are in a nonworking state mainly due to want of statutory clearances from the Central Government departments.
It was resolved at the meeting that to promote more and more utilisation of lumps and fines inside the State, said Commissioner-cum-Secretary Steel & Mines Gudey Srinivas.
The Chief Secretary asked the concerned authorities to plan for massive transportation of minerals through railways and create more infrastructural facilities for railway transportation. He said transport of minerals through railways would reduce the traffic load on roads which causes numerous hazards for common people.
Considering the general allegation of miners regarding high transport cost charged by transporters in the state, the Chief Secretary asked the officials of the Department of Commerce & Transport to strictly implement the approved district-specific rates for minerals transportation by trucks. It was resolved to take exemplary penal action against the violations on this account.
Additional Chief Secretary, Revenue & Disaster Management Taradatt, ACS, Finance UN Behera, Principal Secretary, Home Vipin Kumar Saxena, Special DG Sanjeev Marik along with representatives of ports, railways, OMC and Collectors and SPs of the concerned districts participated in deliberations.
The problems relating to unloading of trucks at the Paradip Port and standby of trucks on National Highways for long times were discussed. The port authorities apprised that they can unload 1,200 to 1,500 trucks per day.
The Chief Secretary asked the Paradip Port Trust (PPT) Chairman and Director of Mines jointly to look into the actual loading of trucks from the originating points and unloading capacity of the port and suggest measures to resolve the problem.
They were asked to submit their report within two weeks. The PPT authorities were advised to adopt an alternative mechanism to scale up the unloading capacity.
The transport authorities were asked to create off-road transit points for trucks at strategic locations to reduce the jam of trucks on roads which creates obstacles for movement of passenger vehicles.
The Chief Secretary also asked the Department of Steel & Mines to make use of the Google Arch to monitor whether actual mining is being done within specified boundaries. Since the mines’ boundaries have been digitised, monitoring can be done through remote sensing mechanism. The data availed from remote sensing can be inspected through actual field verifications to determine the extent of violation, if any.