Karnataka - Udupi   

Exporters not to ply overloaded lorries

By Our Staff Correspondent

Work in progress for the construction of a weighbridge at Shiroor in Udupi district on Tuesday.

UDUPI, DEC. 28. The Deputy Commissioner, T. Sham Bhatt, said on Tuesday that the Manganese Ore Exporters' Association agreed to construct a weighbridge at Shiroor, the northern tip of the district, by January 31. They have also agreed not to ply overloaded lorries, he said.

Addressing presspersons here after a meeting with representatives of the Association, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Save Bridges and National Highway Committee, Mr. Bhatt said that the work on the weighbridge has already started at Shiroor on a piece of land provided by the National Highways Authority. A similar weighbridge is also expected to come up in the Dakshina Kannada district.

Stranded lorries

It had been agreed in today's meeting to allow the overloaded lorries stranded in Uttara Kannada and Udupi districts (due to a blockade by the BJP), to proceed to their destination to the New Mangalore Port, but only after removing the excess manganese ore and shifting them to other lorries.

Till the new weighbridge comes up at Shiroor, the lorries owned by the Association will have to carry the weigh bills procured by them at the starting point, that is, at Hospet.

Random checking

The authorities in Udupi district will conduct random checking of the lorries till January 31. Should any lorry be found overloaded, the agreement will be deemed to be cancelled, Mr. Bhatt said.

The permitted weight of any lorry depended on its axle strength. Normally, this weight is 16 tonnes. If the weight of the lorry is taken into account, it will be between 24 to 26 tonnes. The new weighbridge will be managed by a non-governmental organisation, which is yet to be identified.

Safety of bridges

In order to maintain the safety of the bridges, it has been decided that there will be a minimum gap of three minutes between one lorry and another on a bridge. Thirty private security guards would be appointed to do round-the-clock manning of five such bridges. The job of appointing the private guards would be entrusted to a consumers' forum with funding from the Exporters Association, he said.

All the lorries had been told to use only the National Highway 17. Their movement on the other State Highways of the district would not be allowed, Mr. Bhatt said.

K. Raghupati Bhat, MLA, V.S. Acharya, MLC and the Superintendent of Police, S. Murugan, were present.

Victory for BJP: MLA

Mr. Raghupati Bhat, said that the agreement reached by the Manganese Ore Exporters' Association with the district administration was a victory for the relentless round the clock blockade of overloaded lorries launched by the Bharatiya Janata Party at Byndoor in the district for the last 15 days.

He told presspersons here that this was the biggest pro-people agitation launched by the party. Since the blockade was being conducted round the clock, it had called for massive organisation. Today's agreement was the result of the hard work that the party workers had put for the last 15 days. The BJP will end this blockade from today, he said.

Even after the agreement, a watchdog committee will be formed, which will include representatives of NGOs, political parties and others, to monitor the lorries. It will prevent the infiltration of any overloaded lorry in the district, Mr. Bhat said.

If the work on the construction of the weighbridge at Shiroor is not completed by January 31 or if the overloaded lorries are found plying on the National Highway, the BJP will restart its agitation from February 1, Mr. Bhat added.

V.S. Acharya, MLC, T.V. Hegde, Suresh Nayak, and Suprasad Shetty, BJP leaders, were present.

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