Shillong, Apr 14: The Association of Meghalaya Traders and Transporters (AMTT) has written to the East Jaintia Hills Deputy Commissioner to complain about alleged practices by cement companies that are damaging roads and posing risks to other travellers.
In a missive, the AMTT said that members of the Jaintia Cement Manufacturers Association are guilty of “continuous and unregulated operation of heavy bulker trucks” for the transport of cement, fly ash and clinker from East Jaintia Hills to various destinations within Meghalaya and elsewhere.
Bulker trucks far exceed the structural load-bearing capacity of hill roads in this state, the AMTT added. “In accordance with established engineering practice and administrative orders promulgated across hilly states, such vehicles are expressly prohibited from plying on narrow, single-lane, sharply curved mountain roads without prior written authorisation from the competent authority,” the letter said.
National Highway 6, a major transport artery in EJH, fits this description and is ill-suited to such heavy vehicles.
Use by cement companies of such trucks has disadvantaged more than 800 local transporters who have invested in smaller vehicles that comply with the road rules, the AMTT stated while calling for the DC to institute a fact-finding inquiry into the issue.
