No more zoom on highways

No more zoom on highways
BY AKANKSHA MEHROTRA
BENGALURU








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Come September 29 and the verdict may be out on speed governors for heavy vehicles. As the Dday approaches for the Surpreme Court order, lorry owners who have been given a deadline for installing speed governors to get a fitness certificate to ply on the roads by the transport department, are a worried lot.

“The verdict on speed governors is expected on September 29 while the deadline for fitting vehicles with them is expiring on September 30. This is not fair. If the court verdict is in favour of installing speed gov ernors, all vehicles will have just one day to comply and if the verdict is against installing them, owners who have already got their vehicles suit ably fitted will face a loss,” says the president of the Federation of Karnataka Lorry Owners Association, G.R. Shanmugappa The Transport Commissioner had warned in his notification that unless vehicles have speed governors they will not be allowed inside the state. The time of three months given for fitting vehicles with speed governors expires on September 30, and if by then owners have not complied, they will be penalised. The issue is pending before the Supreme Court after the Karnataka high court ruled in favour of the state government.

The lorry owners are worried that if they are forced to equip their vehicles with speed governors, their business could be hit as they fear no one will hire slow moving vehicles to transport their goods.

“If speed governors are restricted only to the state, the demand for commercial vehicles from here will go down as nobody will want to transport their commodities in vehicles that will take a longer time to reach other states. Our business will be badly affected,” says Mr Shanmugappa.

The federation warns that if the government insists on the new rule, commercial vehicles bringing commodities from outside Karnataka might boycott the state forcing it to rely on stored products.

“We have appealed to the court to implement the verdict nationwide and not restrict it to Karnataka’s commercial vehicles alone,” adds Mr Shanmugappa.