New Delhi: Union road transport minister Nitin Gadkari has asked automobile manufacturers to provide the inbuilt feature of automatic digital display of load on the dashboard of all heavy commercial vehicles, particularly trucks. This will eliminate the scope of harassment by transport and traffic department personnel.
Sources said that Gadkari, while addressing the meeting of the apex technical committee on vehicle standards (CMVR-TSC), suggested the solution to end the scope of the law enforcing agencies using their discretion. TOI has learnt that the minister said, “Why should you allow anyone to harass the drivers for overloading? Technologies are available and digital display of actual load is very much possible.”
The CMVR-TSC has representatives from the industry, government bodies and vehicle testing agencies.
Overloading is a menace on Indian roads and also a cause for fatal crashes. Though earlier the road transport ministry had increased the axle load considering better designs of commercial goods vehicles and improved roads, the norms are violated in impunity. “The only solution lies in technology to end human inference and subjective assessment. The minister has made the right suggestion,” said an official.
As per the amended Motor Vehicle Act, driver, vehicle owner and also those booking their goods for transport are responsible for overloading and they can be penalised.
Sources also said that the committee took up the issue of formulating a standard for detecting driver drowsiness. Some of the experts have suggested including a feature that will automatically alert drivers so that they can prevent a crash.
