GURUGRAM: In a bid to curb overloading of trucks, the regional transport authority (RTA) will now offload the items that are over the sanctioned load and suspend the license of the drivers for three months, along with levying the penalty for overloading. Earlier, a truck was let off after issuance of a challan of Rs 80,000 for overloading.
Overloading is often considered as one of the reasons behind accidents in the city. Overloaded trucks enter the city from Mahendergarh, Mewat and Faridabad, most of them laden with illegally-mined stones and stone chips from stone crushers.
Satrujeet Kapur, principal secretary of transport department of Haryana, had recently conducted a meeting of all RTAs in the NCR and directed them to check the menace of overloading. In the last two months, Gurgaon RTA has collected fines amounting to around Rs 2.75 crore for overloading, the highest for any district in Haryana.
In November, RTA Gurgaon issued around 133 challans for overloading and collected a fine of Rs 96.16 lakh, while 289 other challans were issued in the same month and the department collected Rs 53.33 lakh. In December, it has so far issued 136 challans and collected Rs 72.62 lakh for overloading.
“For last two months we have been acting against overloading aggressively and fines of around Rs 2.75 crore has been collected, which is highest for any district in the state,” said Dhaarna Yadav, secretary of RTA Gurgaon. She said now along with issuing challans, they have also started taking action against the drivers and vehicles.
In most of the cases, the challan amount has not been a deterrent, the official said.
“Now onwards, along with the challan we also suspend the driving license of driver for three months and offload the excess items at the spot. The transporter also has to bring in another truck to carry those items, and the modifications made in the truck to carry overload are also cut off with the help of gas cutters cut in accordance with the specifications,” Yadav said.
Haryana Police have already formed a special team to crack down on illegal mining operations in the Aravalis. An officer said there are five villages in the Tauru belt which are under the scanner for the last two decades. They have deployed 25 teams in 14 districts that are monitoring illegal mining activities in southern Haryana.
According to police, the special team has collected fines amounting to Rs 60 crore and seized around 3,500 vehicles between December 2019 and December 23, 2020.