Palampur: Overloaded vehicles are not checked, and the roads suffer the most

On state and federal routes, truck drivers are allowed to carry weights up to 12 tons, but the state administration has not taken any action against them. In this respect, the government has released a notice designating the district’s traffic in-charges as well as the transport authorities as accountable for carrying out these directives. The government took these actions to prevent trucks carrying excessive loads of cement, sand, gravel, clinkers, tiles, and marbles from damaging the roadways.

In the regions where stone crushers are located, the situation is concerning. The police and RTO seem powerless as truck and tipper operators blatantly break the rules. The most severely impacted national roads are Kangra-Shimla, Palampur-Hamirpur, and Pathankot-Mandi. A maximum weight of ten tonnes is intended to be carried by each of these roadways. The relevant notices, outlining the maximum weights that the trucks may carry, were also sent to the states in 2022 and 2023 by the Union Ministry of Shipping and Transport.

It was discovered that the overloaded cars had seriously damaged a number of minor and large bridges on the roadways. According to the state government’s notice, it was the responsibility of the traffic police and state transport authorities to monitor the use of overloaded vehicles on state roads, but very little was done to enforce the rules against those who disobeyed them. Just 7% of the 100 cars that the police have pulled over are suspected of overloading.

Recall that the state government now spends more than Rs 940 crore annually on repairing and paving its state and national highways. The state’s vehicle traffic has significantly increased, especially since electricity and cement plants were put into service. The state’s accident rate has increased during the last four years as well. The state administration has not raised the width of roads in accordance with the growth in the number of cars. In the next years, the situation will become worse if no sincere measures are done.

The Tribune’s inquiries had shown that the barrier employees either did not use or were not using the weighing bridges that the state government had placed at several points of entrance into the state.

beyond 90% of vehicles have been carrying loads beyond the allowed limit without having their precise loads checked, which has caused damage to expensively constructed roads.