Bhubaneswar, June 17 (IANS): The Odisha government on Wednesday decided to fix ceiling prices for mineral transportation in each mineral bearing district of the state. This would come into force from July 1, 2015, according to an official.

This decision has been taken to rein in the truck owners and agencies charging exorbitant charges for transportation of minerals.

Mines director Deepak Mohanty said the state government has decided to enforce ceiling charges for transportation of minerals in five mineral bearing districts of Angul, Jagatsinghpur, Keonjhar, Jajpur and Sundergarh.

He said the initiative is aimed at bringing transparency in the mineral transportation and rationalising the fares in those districts. A meeting was held under the chairmanship of state chief secretary G.C. Pati on Wednesday.

"The district level technical committees have been asked to fix the ceiling price for their respective districts and submit it to the transport and commerce department by June 20," Mohanty said.

After receiving the reports from the districts, the transport and commerce department would hold its state-level technical committee meeting and examine the charges fixed by districts.

"If any truck owner is found charging more than the ceiling price, registration of his vehicle will be cancelled and the owner would not be able to use the vehicle in mineral transportation anymore," said Mohanty.