The Government is trying to find newer ways to penalise overloaded vehicles, which have become one of the worst offenders when it comes to pollution and unsafe driving.
Minister for Road, Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari has asked all States to install weight measuring machines at toll plazas to check overloading of trucks. He has also asked them to install scanners at select State entry toll points to check the trucks for both pilferage and also on attempts to skip excise duties on goods transported.
“Overloading is a menace and needs to be checked. Especially, now that the Government is working on digitizing all toll plazas by use of e-technology and fast tags to encourage electronic toll collection, the Minister (Gadkari) has asked all States to adopt the same on State highways,” said an official from the Ministry.
“The Minister has also asked States to install weigh machines on select channels, particularly State entry points to check the corrupt practice. This move could also lead to better enforcement of the 2005 ban by the Supreme Court on overloaded trucks,” said the official.
The previous Government has empowered the National Highways Authority of India to penalise trucks carrying cargo in excess of prescribed limits. They are allowed to penalise upto 10 times of the predefined toll charges.
“The lack of a systematic approach and appropriate checks and balances is the reason why we have not been able to rein in the menace of overloading. If these weight checks are made mandatory for all trucks and penalty collections can be made through electronic channels, there will be a definite check,” said the official.
In 2012, overloading and overcrowding caused almost one lakh accidents and claimed 30,500 lives on Indian roads. Moreover, a Central Road Research Institute study had shown that with 10 per cent overloading above the permissible limit, the life of roads got reduced by 35 per cent and with 30 per cent overloading, it got reduced by about 65 per cent.
International experts have been pushing for reforms in rules and regulations to make travel safer on Indian roads.