NHA taking steps to control heavy loading on national highways, motorways

ISLAMABAD: The National Highway Authority (NHA) and National Highways and Motorways Police (NH&MP) have been taking several steps to control overloading of vehicles on motorways and highways in the country.
Talking to APP, an official of Ministry of Communications said that National Highway Safety Ordinance (NHSO) 2000 was promulgated to control overloading on national highways.He said establishment of weigh stations at 94 locations on motorways and highways was being finalized and it was being ensured that overloaded trucks were fined as per National Highways Safety Ordinance (NHSO) 2000 by National Highways and Motorway Police.
To a question, he said that the overloading of commercial vehicles caused major damages to highways and motorways like fatigue failure and rutting etc.
He said that assessment of road damages in terms of financial losses caused by overloading is a very complex and non-tangible exercise in presence of multiple factors attributed to failure of pavements in Pakistan like use of substandard construction materials and construction methods, inadequate compaction, improper drainage system, type and condition of vehicles and number of passes of axle load.
He said that axle load control regime is being pursued in light of the experiences and literature available on it in developed countries like USA, UK, Malaysia and Australia etc.The overloaded vehicles are checked through weigh stations at entry points of motorways and they are not allowed to enter into motorways.
Campaign, he said, has been launched through print and electronic media to create awareness among the travelers as well as general public for discouraging the tendency of overloading is regularly being done and series of stakeholders meetings in this regard have been organized by NHA during the past few years.
He further said that meetings were also held with provincial governments to impose the load restriction regime on provincial network as well.A stakeholders’ Conference regarding Axle Overload Control was held on June 2 at NHA Auditorium Islamabad to formulate action plan for strict control of overloading with coordination and consultation of stakeholders.