Modification and overloading of vehicles are continuing unabated, damaging the country’s roads and highways and causing fatal road accidents amid lax monitoring by the authorities concerned.

While the roads and highways in the country are already in dilapidated condition, overloaded vehicles are damaging those more, said road engineering and safety experts.

They said that the government should strictly monitor these vehicles, but it was giving in to the pressure from the transport owners and workers not to take legal actions.

Half of the axle load control centres on important highways remain inactive at present while the active ones almost fail to control overloading by vehicles due to obstructions from the transport owners and workers, said officials of the Roads and Highways Department.

A project to establish 25 new axle load control centres has been going at a snail’s pace since 2019 with two time extensions.

Recently the department has sent proposal to the road transport and bridges ministry to extend the deadline for the third time.

Modification and overloading of vehicles have been common in Bangladesh for years while no government took a strong stance against the transport owners and workers to stop these practices.

Goods-carrying vehicles especially trucks are often seen overturned or stuck on the highways and roads by breaking axles due to overloading.

Professor Md Hadiuzzaman, a civil engineering department teacher at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, said that modifying a vehicle’s body dimensions was a major crime as per the Road Transport Act 2018.

‘The responsibility of monitoring these modified vehicles lies with the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority,’ said Hadiuzzaman, also a former director of Accident Research Institute.

‘How are these vehicles getting fitness certificates from the BRTA?’ he questioned.

‘You can modify the body, but the chassis cannot be modified which is the main structure that holds the body,’ he said, adding that the chassis got damaged as it lost capacity due to modification of vehicle body.

So the axle often breaks and then vehicles overturn or hit other vehicles, said Hadiuzzaman.

He mentioned that as per the ARI, the involvement of heavy vehicles is approximately 22.5 per cent to 25 per cent in fatal road accidents.

RHD chief engineer Syed Moinul Hasan said that at the axle load control centres, they called magistrates to take action and the highway police could also file cases for these.

‘In some places, perhaps some people use dummy wheels, but we try…,’ he said, adding, ‘You understand, it is difficult to keep everything 100 per cent legal in Bangladesh.’

He also said that the modification must be controlled by the BRTA.

Some officials of the department’s Road Design and Safety Circle said that the axle load control centres at Sitakunda, Meghna, Bathuli, Char Sindhur and Patuakhali were active while centres at Daukandi, Ghorashal Bridge, Bhairab Bridge, Benapole and Ramgarh were not active now.

‘Even if the centres are active, due to pressure from some local transport leaders, owners and workers, people at these centres cannot work properly,’ said a senior official.

The then Awami League-led government imposed fines for overloading in August, 2016 for the first-time and in the same month, the transport owners and workers vandalised weighbridges in Manikganj and Chattogram, protesting at the fine imposition.

In January 2018, the government increased the maximum loading limit of goods-carrying vehicles to meet the demand of transport owners.

Same year in May transport workers vandalised an axle-load station at Sitakunda.

Hadiuzzaman also said that the roads were built with public money, but people were killed on roads when the modified and overloaded vehicles damaged these roads and caused accidents.

‘No one is taking responsibility,’ he said and added that the transport owners only look at profits by modifying vehicles.

BRTA chairman (additional charge) Meer Ahemed Tariqul Omar said that they were the regulatory authority that grants approval by specifying the weight for a vehicle.

‘If someone modifies the vehicle to carry extra goods, the final responsibility for apprehending them lies with the police,’ he said, adding that the BRTA executive magistrates also seized these vehicles and cancelled their registrations.

Tariqul Omar said that if a field-level officer failed to inspect the modified vehicles or let them go in exchange for something, they would take immediate action if it was reported to the BRTA.

‘In the context of our country, many things happen, and as you know, people manage things in various ways,’ he added.

Additional Inspector General of Highway Police Md Delwar Hossain Miah said that wherever they were stationed, they took legal action against the overloaded vehicles.

In cases of modification, if a vehicle deviates from or exceeds the specific measurement, they file a case, he said, adding that they had many such cases.

Denying the allegation of obstructing functions at axle load control centres, Bangladesh Road Transport Owner’s Association executive president Abdul Baten claimed that they were strongly against overloading and vehicle modification.

‘We do not deny that some owners modify vehicles. But what are the authorities doing?’ he questioned and mentioned that near the Daudkandi Bridge they saw trucks with a 15-tonne capacity were carrying 25 to 30 tonnes of goods.

‘How are they crossing despite the presence of weighing scales?’ he questioned, alleging that the police were being ‘managed’ to allow such vehicles to pass.

Meanwhile, the executive committee of the National Economic Council approved the ‘Establishment of Axle Load Control Centres at Entry Points of Goods Transport in the Important Highways under the Road and Highways Department’ project on September 3, 2019 at a cost of Tk 1,630.27 crore.

At that time, the project tenure was from July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2022 to set up 28 axle load control centres.

Following time extensions, the project deadline is now June 30, 2026 with physical progress of 57 per cent and financial progress of 28 per cent, said the project manager and executive engineer, Md Abdul Ahad.

He said that following a revised detailed project proposal, some designs of the project were changed, three centres were dropped and the project cost was reduced to Tk 1,609 crore.

‘Now the department will set up 25 centres,’ Ahad added.