Railways, Ports to have regulatory mechanism for transportation of iron ore

BHUBANESWAR: In a bid to resolve the issue of non-transportation of iron ore from Orissa on the sidelines of multi-crore mining scam, it has been decided that the railways and port authorities would make regulatory system in place to check illegal mining.
In the high level meeting held on Monday at Delhi where Union mines secretary, steel secretary, railway board member and Orissa mines secretary had attended, there would be a full-proof mechanism to check illegal transportation of iron ore from the state.

Even as the Railways and Port Authorities have been pointing out that as transporters they do not have the mandate to check the source of traffic, it was decided to evolve a mechanism where consigners will verify the transit pass.

“Whenever a consigner filed indent for a rake, it should be signed by the competent authority from the state government and the lessee so that transportation of illegal ore can be checked. We found 120 rakes of the railways carrying illegal ore and a FIR was filed based on which 48 representatives of industry were arrested. It was our argument that railways do not have regulatory mechanism which is why illegal ore had been transported without much hiccup”, Orissa mines secretary, Ashok Dalwai on Monday told “The ET”.

Meanwhile, a Committee headed by Railway Commissioner and other concerned officials is working overtime to come out with a regulatory mechanism that will be put in place to rule out transportation of illegal ore.

“We stand vindicated as we have initiated steps and arrested a large number of people and actions have been taken against those involved in illegal mining. We have confiscated more than two lakh tons of illegally mined ore and we've detained trains suspected to carrying such ore,” he said.

Orissa chief secretary, Tarun Kanti Mishra will take a final call on Thursday when all concerned authorities would be present and the final decision will taken to solve the imbroglio over non-transportation of iron ore threatening closure of steel plants in eastern India, Mr Dawai added.