The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has written a letter to the Union ministry of road transport and highways (MRTH) on seeking a clear roadmap about cracking down the menace of
overloaded vehicles on highways.This comes in after the MRTH issued a notification on Wednesday, which directed NHAI to crackdown on all the overloaded vehicles on highways by offloading them. The notification also directed the NHAI to charge a fine of ten times the amount of the toll.
“We have written a letter to the MRTH and sought clarity on as to how the directions be implemented. If one wants to offload particular overloaded trucks the private toll operators will need to be instructed about having some infrastructure for offloading it. It
cannot happen just mid-way on the highway. Also, extra manpower will be required for charging fines on overloaded vehicles,” said Rajeev Singh, chief general manager, NHAI Mumbai division.“This move will also bring down road accidents as overloaded vehicles are one of the major contributors to fatal accidents. It will also prevent premature damage to National Highways and bring down vehicular pollution,” stated the notification.
The overloaded vehicles will not be allowed to cross the toll plaza but will be towed away and parked at designated place at owner’s risk, said the notification. However, a NHAI official said, “There is no clarity on the implementation. The private toll operators have no power to take any actions. How can we allow a non-governmental body to take action
Also, transport expert A.V. Shenoy said, “The duty of collecting fines is not that of private toll operators. It is the duty of administration to collect fines.”
