Miners in east India come together to build road

Miners in eastern India, especially within a radius of 200 km from the Orissa and Jharkhand borders have decided to build a road more than 600 km long, with an estimated expenditure of Rs 300 crore. Approximately, 80 per cent of mines in the two states are in this area.

The miners are in the process of forming a separate body to execute this project, which has been initially funded by small contributions from each miner. The body would also organise further funds for the project. According to an industry source, a number of banks have evinced interest to partly fund the construction. Once the road has been completed, in approximately 3-4 years, the body would also collect a toll tax.

FOR A SMOOTH RIDE

The road will be 600-km long and will be built by miners withinj a radius of 200 km from the borders of Orissa and Jharkhand borders

The miners are forming a separate body to execute the project, which has been initially funded by small contributions from each miner

Truckers have been refusing to ply in the mining areas citing poor road conditions, especially in the monsoon season

The initiative is significant as truckers, especially in the monsoon season, refuse to ply in the mining areas citing poor road conditions. This results in inventory pile-ups at mines on the one hand, and raw material shortage at the steel units on the other. This also results in an almost complete halt of export shipments during the monsoon.

The road which exists now requires heavy investment for maintenance every year. With heavy trucks plying on them, heavy maintenance is required every year. Bad roads mean greater depreciation of trucks, extra fuel consumption and more transportation time.

“This initiative would not only save these extravagances but also enthuse miners to raise mining capacity to capture exports markets such as China,” Ghanashyam Das Agarwal, chairman of Adhunik Metaliks, an Orissa-based manganese ore miner and exporter. This would also increase the government’s royalty on mining, he added.

The application has already been sent to the respective governments seeking permission to build roads.

In the first half of the last financial year, the poor road conditions resulted in freight costs here being among the highest nationwide (Rs 1,500 per tonne for 325 km from Barbil-Paradip which is three times the railway freight and almost 50 per cent up from the normal freight rate).

The time-cycle for cargo movement covering barely 300 km in the mining belt of Orissa was about 7-8 days, leading to high freight charges and lower cargo movement. There was frequent stoppage and disruption in road transport due to administrative/local stoppage and temporary road repairs.