Cuttack, September 17: The State Transport Authority (STA) has decided to launch a six-day anti overloading campaign throughout the State from September 19 (Monday).
“Overloading of vehicles would attract a penalty of Rs 20,000 and additional fine of Rs 2,000 per extra tonne. Also, the Driving Licence (DL) may be disqualified for three months,” said Joint Commissioner Transport (Road Safety) Sanjay Biswal in a release.
The special drive will continue till September 25. The hyva, tipper, dumpers & other such similar category vehicles carrying sand, fly ash, chips etc will be checked under this drive.
He said that the enforcement drive will be carried out with special focus on the districts of Rayagada, Bolangir, Bargarh, Sambalpur, Jharsuguda, Sundergarh, Dhenkanal, Angul, Cuttack, Kendrapara, Jajpur, Balasore, Bhadrak and Khordha having industrial and mining activities.
“As many as 1,442 accidents took place due to overloaded/hanging vehicles in 2021. A total of 673 people were killed due to the load condition of the vehicles. Moreover, a total of 834 persons were grievously injured and 588 had minor injuries in accidents involving overloaded vehicles,” said Biswal.
Earlier in crackdown on overloaded vehicles, a total of 83 e-challans were issued, 25 vehicles were seized and 81 DLs were suspended. Compounding fees of Rs 3, 69,461 were collected.
