Overloaded trucks involved in mining damaging highways in U.P.

Many trucks transporting building materials are overloaded beyond permissible limits, exerting excessive pressure on roads, bridges, and infrastructure.

LUCKNOW Built at a cost of ₹900 crore by the National Highway Authority of India, the 17-km Varanasi Ring Road (Phase-2, pocket-1) is in need of a repair less than two years after it was opened for the public in October 2021. The road, which is currently being repaired, has developed grooves throughout its stretch, often causing vehicles to tumble down.

For representation only (PTI)

Four months of data collection and analysis by the administration and the NHAI have found that overloaded trucks that operate from the mining districts such as Sonbharda and Mirzapur within the state as well as from the neighbouring state of Bihar damaged the new road.

The Chandauli-Prayagraj national highway, like many other highways and roads in the state, has also been found grappling with the same chronic truck overloading problem that has once again come into focus after Varanasi divisional commissioner Kaushal Raj Sharma flagged the issue in a recent meeting with chief minister Yogi Adityanath in Varanasi.

Chief secretary Durga Shankar Mishra, who was also present in the same meeting, held a discussion with the officials of the transport and the mining department here on June 21, ordering a state-wide two weeks’ drive against truck overloading from July 1.

According to the presentation that the Varanasi commissioner made to the CM during the latter’s last visit there, around 70% of hundreds of trucks that transported construction material like sad, ‘morang’ and ballast from mine-rich districts like Sonbhadra Mirzapur as well as from some neighbouring districts in Bihar were heavily overloaded, breaching the permissible weight limit and were, and hence, damaging many roads in the division.

“After road mishaps on the newly-built Varanasi Ring Road, we tried to find out the reasons for the early road damage. We were told that the road had been damaged due to the plying of overloaded trucks coming with sand, ballast, etc from Sonbhadra, Mirzapur, and Bihar,” Kaushal Raj Sharma told HT over the phone.

“We took up the matter with the NHAI that confirmed it to be so after analysing the toll plazas’ data for the last four months,” he added. The data, he said, showed the majority of several lakhs of trucks that crossed the road in four months carried a load much more than the legally permissible limit.

“Significantly, the road damage is unidirectional on the side which overloaded trucks use when travelling towards Varanasi. In contrast, the other side they used for returning after unloading did have grooves,” he pointed out. He said the Chandauli-Prayagraj national highway had also suffered a similar kind of damage due to the same reason.

Truck overloading continues to be a major concern in Uttar Pradesh, especially in the mining sector. Many trucks transporting building materials are overloaded beyond permissible limits, exerting excessive pressure on roads, bridges, and infrastructure. This leads to rapid deterioration of the road network, increasing maintenance costs and compromising safety for all road users.

“The persistent nature of this problem can be attributed, in part, to the control of the mining industry by many powerful politicians and mafias and this often indirectly influences the enforcement of regulations related to truck overloading,” a senior transport official pointed out.

Moreover, when the truck overloading is curbed strictly, the building material prices shoot up. Those involved in the business raise the rates to make up for the increased transportation cost they have to bear when trucks start carrying load within the legally permissible limits,” he added.

In the CS’s June 21 meeting, it was pointed out that trucks transporting the building material from mines did not carry a proper registration number plate which was often broken or blackened to hide the identity to avoid being caught.

Director of mining, Roshan Jacob, is said to have suggested in the meeting that the transport department made rules disallowing trucks without a high-security registration plate (HSRP) from being used to transport the mining materials.

Another senior transport official claimed that continuous efforts over the years had been able to curb truck overloading related to all other sectors in the state to a large extent. “But 90% of the remaining overloading is by the trucks engaged in the transportation of mining materials. We are often unable to crack down for two reasons. Firstly, because of the involvement of powerful people in the mining business and second because of the fear of shooting of construction material prices,” the official added.