The Meghalaya High Court today ordered the State government to use the existing weighbridges and install additional weighbridges at key places, particularly close to the entry points in the State and at several places midway in order to curb overloading by goods vehicles.
The High Court also directed that an adequate number of personnel should also be deployed to ensure that goods vehicles using the State’s roads adhere to the weight restrictions in accordance with law.
The division bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Wanlura Diengdoh was hearing the PIL filed by Tennydard M. Marak who sought the court’s intervention to stop overloading by trucks in the State.
“Considering the hilly terrain here and the heavy rainfall that the State experiences, it is absolutely imperative that goods vehicles adhere to the weight norms that may have been fixed. Further, the State should revisit the norms as to weight to ensure that the already precarious conditions of the roads due to the rains do not worsen as a result of overladen goods vehicles plying the highways,” the High Court said.
“The State should make use of the existing weighbridges and, possibly, install additional weighbridges at key places, particularly close to the entry points in the State and at several places midway. Adequate number of personnel should also be deployed to ensure that goods vehicles using the State’s roads adhere to the weight restrictions in accordance with law,” the court said in its order.
“The State should file a report when the matter appears next three months hence, indicating the measures taken to effectively implement the existing rules pertaining to the permissible weight of goods vehicles plying in the State,” the court added while listing the matter for hearing on September 21.
