A weighing station on Highway No.1. (Photo: chinhphu.vn)Hanoi (VNA) - Overloaded vehicles areonce again being spotted on roads and highways across the country, despite theGovernment crackdown.
In 2013, the public security and transport ministries launched Plan No. 12593to keep a check on overloaded vehicles, which were a huge risk to motorists. Aspart of the crackdown, every province and city was given a mobile scale toweigh vehicles.
In June 2016, the plan summary showed that the number of overloaded vehicles onroads had reduced by 80 to 90 percent compared to the before thecampaign.
However, a recent report in the Government’s online newspaper states thatoverloaded vehicles are back, not only on highways but also on inner cityroads, such as on the Xuan Mai-Hoa Lac route in Hanoi and Highway No.6 from HoaLac to Hoa Binh. Highways running through northern provinces of Hung Yen and BacGiang, and Highway No.1 have especially recorded many overloaded vehicles.
Noticeably, weighing stations at almost allprovinces and cities have closed down.
Dang Van Chung, deputy head of traffic safetydivision under the Transport Ministry’s Directorate for Roads of Vietnam, saidthat many regions are no longer keeping a tight check to prevent overloadedvehicles from plying.
Offenders running such vehicles on long journeys are not being punished, whilemost weighing stations have shut down, except in Nghe An and Vinh Long, Chungsaid identifying the issue.
After Plan No. 12593 ended, the two ministries took stock and stopped thecrackdown activities, which has created the wrong impression that the fightagainst overloaded vehicles has ended, Chung said.
He also slammed media reports that vehicles are not being weighed as theweighing scales are damaged. Scales were installed at the same time, so theirmaintenance is also around the same time. Almost all provinces and cities havesent the scales to Hanoi, which is the only place that has the maintenancestation, Chung said.
Any province with a broken scale or with one that’s being repaired has receivedreplacement from the Directorate for Roads of Vietnam, he added.
“It is fair to say that some provinces do not want to fight against overloadedvehicles as it has an impact on economic development,” Chung said.
In 2016, the directorate proposed to the Transport Ministry that a directive bepassed to strengthen the drive against overloaded vehicles, he said.
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has assigned the responsibility of controllingthe weight of vehicles to local authorities.
“If every single locality tightens control, the campaign will be effectivewhether there are weighing stations or not,” Chung said. -VNA
