Highway tonnage raised
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, March 16 2019:
As highway construction works have seen considerable growth qualitatively on account of investment of more funds and use of newer technologies, the tonnage assigned to National Highways has also been raised.
According to a notification issued by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), Transport Division in July last year, the maximum tonnage of trucks with 10 axles was raised from 25 tonnes to 28.5 tonnes (including vehicle weight).
Likewise, maximum tonnage of vehicles with six axles has been raised from 15 tonnes to 19 tonnes.
Vehicles with 12 axles can now carry up to 36 tonnes whose maximum tonnage earlier was 31 tonnes.
Maximum tonnages of vehicles with 14 axles and 16 axles have been raised from 35.2 tonnes to 43.5 tonnes and 40.2 tonnes to 47.5 tonnes respectively.
However, in Manipur, the maximum tonnage for a truck with 10 axles is limited to 24 tonnes on Imphal-Jiribam highway and 25 tonnes on Imphal-Dimapur highway.
On account of this restriction, bigger trucks with 12 axles, 14 axles etc have been denied entry to Manipur.
As a result, people of the State have been denied any benefit from reduction of transportation cost.
Even if the maximum permissible tonnages have been restricted on National Highways passing through the State due to bad conditions of the highway sections, the Govt is yet to work out a permanent solution to the sub-standard quality of highways.