Palampur: No check on overloaded trucks, roads bear the brunt

Ravinder Sood

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Palampur, April 19

The state government has failed to initiate action against truck drivers carrying loads exceeding the prescribed limit of 9 to 12 tonnes on the state roads and national highways. The government has issued a notification in this regard, making all traffic in-charges in the district and transport authorities responsible to implement these orders. These steps were taken by the government to stop the damage being caused to the roads by trucks overloaded with cement, sand, gravel, clinkers, tiles and marbles.

The situation is alarming in the areas in which stone crushers operate. Truck and tipper operators are openly flouting the norms and, the police and RTO seem helpless. Pathankot-Mandi, Palampur-Hamirpur and Kangra-Shimla national highways are the worst affected. All these roads have been designed to bear a maximum load of 10 tonnes. The Union Ministry of Shipping and Transport has also issued necessary notifications to states in this regard in 2022 and 2023, specifying the limit of maximum loads to be carried by the trucks.

It was learnt that a number of small and big bridges on the highways had been severely damaged by the overloaded vehicles. As per the notification issued by the state government, it was the duty of the state transport authorities and traffic police to check the plying of overloaded vehicles in the state, but hardly any action was taken against the defaulters. Out of 100 vehicles challaned by the police, only 7 per cent pertain to overloading.

It may be recalled that at present, the state government is spending over Rs 940 crore on the repair and surfacing of its national and state highway every year. There has been a manifold increase in the vehicular traffic in the state, particularly after the commissioning of cement and power projects. In the past four years, the accident rate in the state has also gone up. Despite the fact that the number of vehicles has increased, the state government has failed to raise the width of roads accordingly. If no earnest efforts are made, the situation would worsen in the coming years.

Enquiries made by The Tribune had revealed that weighing bridges installed by the state government on different entry points of the state were lying out of order or were not used by the barrier staff.

In the absence of the checking the exact load of the trucks, over 90 per cent trucks have been carrying load more than the prescribed limit, resulting in damage to roads built at a heavy cost.