KOHAT: Road Transport Authority Secretary Mohammad Shoeb has decided to double the amount of fine on truckers if they violate the axle load policy in order to protect the Kohat roads from damage.

Talking to Dawn on phone on Wednesday, he said if the truckers did not abide by the rules their vehicles would be confiscated at the Togh Bala toll plaza weighbridge on the Rawalpindi Road.

He said he had taken the action on the instructions of provincial secretary transport Mohammad Ziaul Haq, who had visited Kohat the other day. Mr Shoeb said vehicles coming from Punjab and local cement company were bypassing the weighbridge due to the criminal negligence of the private contractor.

He said he had written a letter to the cement company management to observe load management policy. He said heavy vehicles coming from Punjab also avoided the truck scale before turning towards the Kohat tunnel on way to Peshawar.

He said the overloaded vehicles were damaging the Rawalpindi-Kohat-Peshawar Road.

To a query that on the recently-completed Kohat-Hangu dual carriageway, there was no weighbridge despite the repeated requests by the then project director to check the heavily loaded vehicles coming from Karachi port for Afghanistan deliveries, Mr Shoeb said a mobile weighbridge would be used for the purpose.

Published in Dawn, November 23rd, 2023