Transportation of iron ore by road resumed Friday at a state-run  mine here, five months after it was stopped over law and order problems, an official said.

 

 

 Although the Gandhamardan mine was operational, transportation was stopped since March this year, Odisha Mining Corporation Limited (OMCL) chairman-cum-managing director Saswat Mishra told IANS.

 

 "Transportation was started today (Friday) with about 30 trucks that ferried about 300 tonnes of iron ore. Gradually the number of trucks and the quantity would increase," he said.

 

 The Gandhamardan mine of state-run OMCL at Suakati in Keonjhar district, about 250 km from Bhubaneswar, has a capacity to produce about three million tonnes of iron ore per year.

 

 Odisha produced 62 million tonnes of iron ore in 2012-13. The state expects its output to rise marginally to around 65 million tonnes in the current fiscal.

 

IANS