The National Highway Authority (NHA) has decided to penalise the vehicles, carrying the load greater than the permissible limits with effect from May 01, 2009. This was decided in a meeting chaired by NHA Member Finance Zafar Iqbal Gondal here on Wednesday.
Speaking on the occasion, the Member Finance informed the participants that overloading was one of the most important factors responsible for the destruction of national highways and motorways.
He said that authority had to spend more than 10 billion rupees each year for the maintenance of roads damaged by overloaded trucks, adding that road infrastructure was a national asset, therefore needed to be protected against the menace of overloading. He said a detailed policy was being chalked out in order to minimise the damaging effects on our highways and all the provincial governments and other stakeholders were taken on board in this connection.
He further informed the meeting that permissible load limits for different vehicles would soon be publicised through national media after which if the vehicles found violating the rules they would be fined heavily. He said that NHA had established a number of weigh stations on motorways and highways for this purpose and more weigh stations would soon be established to tackle with the problem effectively. Representatives from Goods Transport agencies and Truck Owner Association also participated in the meeting.