EXTRAORDINARY
PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY
No. 1853 CUTTACK, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2019 /ASWINA 4, 1941
STEEL & MINES DEPARTMENT
NOTIFICATION
The 21st September, 2019
Subject: Addressing congestion of mineral carrying vehicles on the road to Paradip Port.
No.7203-IV(A)SM-05/2012(Pt-V)/SM.—Whereas, there are reportedly over 2000 trucks plying every day, towards Paradip Port. Majority of these are mineral carrying vehicles originating from Joda, Barbil and Koira sectors causing congestion near and also on the road to Paradip.
And, whereas, this congestion problem is further multiplied as the mineral carrying vehicles are being weighed at the weighbridges located at Maruti, Hati and OSL on the said road leading at times, the queue length of the waiting trucks going up to 30 KMs causing 36-48 hours delay for trucks to reach the port.
Whereas, the relevant provisions on installation and operations of weighbridges are provided under Odisha Minerals (Prevention of Theft, Smuggling & Illegal Mining and Regulation of Possession, Storage, Trading and Transportation) Rules, 2007. As per rule 11(1) of the said Rules 2007, the Government may set up weighbridge(s) at any place within the State and that u/r. 11(5) of the said Rules, the Director of Mines is the Authority to approve the weighbridges. The aforesaid weighbridges have been approved by the Director of Mines since 2011 under the said provisions for carrying out enroute checking of the mineral carrying vehicles.
Whereas, the Director General of Police vide his letter No.2892/Con., dated the 3rd June, 2019 to the address of the Chief Secretary has inter alia suggested to examine if the weighing of mining trucks can be dispensed with by the Mining Department. Moreover, the Chairman Paradip Port Trust vide his letter No.AD/EST/ZONE-VIII-8/2008, dated the 13th June, 2019 has also reported that the current bottleneck for free movement of trucks 2 Whereas, further, the problem of congestion has also been duly acknowledged and deliberated in the meeting held on 25th June, 2019 under the chairmanship of the Additional Chief Secretary, Home Department.
And, whereas, the Director of Mines vide his letter No.6553/DM, dated the 21st August, 2019 while highlighting the problem of congestion has reported that with introduction of i3MS from 2012-13, provision has been made for weighment of minerals at the exit point of all mining leases through electronic weighbridges installed by the respective lessees and integrated with i3MS and that this system automatically captures the weighment details which are also accessed by the Port Authority and that there is no discrepancy in weighment between the data captured in i3MS and that recorded at the weighbridges cited supra.
Director of Mines has thus proposed to withdraw the arrangement of weighment of mineral carrying vehicles in the aforesaid three private weighbridges for easier and faster movement of such vehicles.
Therefore, in view of the above, the State Government, after careful consideration, have been pleased to withdraw the arrangement of weighment of mineral carrying vehicles in Maruti, Hati and OSL weighbridges located on the road to Paradip subject to the condition that checking of minerals should have been done in the approved weighbridge(s) either at the lease area or the depot, as the case may be, or enroute at any other approved weighbridges.
It is further ordered that the Director of Mines shall ensure random checking of the vehicles on the above route and submit reports to the Department in case any instances of discrepancy in weighment is detected. He should also submit the monthly reports on working of this arrangement.
By Order of the Governor
B. N. ACHARYA
Additional Secretary to Government