ROADS, HIGHWAYS Nothing stops overloading

The government’s indifference has led to overloading spree subjecting the country’s roads, highways and bridges to serious damage, the repair and maintenance of which require a huge amount of public money. 
These roads having 20 years’ economic life are being damaged due to overloading and they are being repaired every year spending bid amount. 
Experts have blamed the government’s indulgence of vested interest groups and strong pressure from transport leaders for this vicious circle of anomaly. 
The government framed Motor Vehicles’ Axle Load Control Centre Operation Policy in 2012 to check overloading as it was the main reason for damages to roads and bridges, said officials of Roads and Highways Department. 
But against the permitted limit, the goods-laden vehicles continued to carry two to two-and-a-half times higher weight. 
Eleven — including five permanent and six portable — axle load stations or weighbridges were set up in the country out of which only four permanent stations are active currently. 
On August 24, 2016, road transport and bridges ministry for the first time imposed fines for overloading and that very day transport owners and workers burnt two weighbridges in Manikganj and in Chittagong in protest at the fine.
Between August 2016 and March 2018, at the weighbridges a total of Tk 155.45 crore was realised in fines from 7.56 lakh overloaded vehicles and as punishment, 1.85 lakh overloaded vehicles were sent back to source points and 426 cases were filed. 
Besides, in January this year the government increased maximum loading limit of goods vehicles as an interim initiative to check overloading following demand of transport owners. 
The RHD then opposed the initiative saying that it would damage its infrastructure — roads, highways and bridges.
Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology professor Md Shamsul Hoque told New Age that overloading now became an incurable disease due to the indifference of the authorities for years. 
‘It is very alarming that after imposing so much fines and action against so many vehicles overloading continues which proves that existing action is not adequate to address the problem,’ he observed. 
The government should not have increased weight limit for goods-laden vehicles violating international standards under pressures from transport leaders, he said. 
Transparency International Bangladesh executive director Iftekharuzzaman alleged that the transport sector in Bangladesh was exceptional as the controlling authorities were directly leading the sector.
In 2000-01 fiscal, RHD got and used Tk 305 crore for maintaining national and regional highways and district roads, which increased to Tk 1,804 crore in 2017-18 fiscal years. 
In 2009-10, RHD repaired and maintained 2,604 kilometre roads, which increased to 3,236 km in 2017-18 fiscal. 
The department used Tk 30.88 crore in 2007-08 fiscal for repairing and maintaining its bridges and culverts which increased to Tk 125 crore in 2017-18 fiscal. 
In this circumstance, Road Transport and Highways Division has urged for additional allocation of Tk 20,000 crore for implementation of development projects in 2018-19 fiscal including Tk 5,810 crore for 22 projects for improvement of regional highways.
In September 2014, Professor Dimitrios Tsamboulas of National Technical University of Athens, Greece presented a paper titled ‘Estimating and Benchmarking Transport Infrastructure Tools’ at an UNECE workshop at Geneva which showed that it cost about Tk 29 crore to construct one kilometre of any 4-lane road in European countries. 
However, in Bangladesh, per kilometre of 53km Dhaka-Mawa highway, now upgrading to a four-lane road at an estimated cost of around Tk 6,252 crore, will cost about Tk 118 crore.
Iftekharuuzman said that a vested quarter was behind recurrent maintenance and repairs of costly roads to reap financial benefits. 
‘Instead of proper maintenance, they are more interested in repeated maintenance,’ he noted. 
Professor Shamsul Hoque warned that maintenance fund for the country’s roads would soon become a black hole while the government was directly responsible for the bad condition of roads. 
RTHD secretary Md Nazrul Islam admitted that overloading was continuing and RHD could not check it. 
‘We sent a project proposal to the Planning Commission for setting up 23 more axle load stations all over the country,’ he said. 
The secretary also said all stakeholders including transport owners and workers should work together to check overloading. 
At present two-axle vehicles (six wheels) can carry a maximum 22 tonnes of weight all over the country instead of earlier limit of 16.5 tonnes of weight, three-axle (10 wheels) vehicles can carry maximum 30 tonnes instead of 22 tonnes and four-axle (14 wheels) vehicles can carry 40 tonnes instead of 32 tonnes of weight.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net