Transport dept: Fine collection may touch Rs 200 crore-mark this fiscal

Kolkata: The strict vigilance on national and state highways across Bengal by motor vehicle inspectors (MVI) of the state Transport department and police have contributed towards a significant rise in penalty collection for overloading or running of vehicles without valid documents.

“Our enforcement activities have increased manifold in the last few years which is evident from our collection of fines from offending vehicles. We are continuing it in full swing. With the increasing number of vehicles being checked, the penalty collection too is going up,” said Snehasis Chakaraborty, state Transport minister.

As per the database of the department, in 2020-21, 3,64,820 vehicles were checked out of which 25811 vehicles were found to be overloaded. The total penalty that earned during the fiscal was over Rs 77.89 crore. In 2021-22, the total vehicles checked went up to 5,44000 and the fine collected due to overloading, not running with fitness certificate (CF) or with other irregularities, went over Rs 131.51 crore. About 20302 vehicles were fined for overloading.

In 2022-23, over 747000 vehicles were checked and fine collection further climbed up to Rs 167.60 crore. About 21901 vehicles were fined for overloading.

In the ongoing fiscal till October, the department has collected Rs 97.58 crore as penalty with 540000 vehicles being checked. About 11370 vehicles were fined for overloading. The department expects that the collection of fines due to overloading and other irregularities may touch Rs 200 crore in this ongoing

2023-24 fiscal.

Fines collected by tracking of overloaded goods vehicles have been a major contributor of the penalty amount for the Transport department. The collection from overloading was Rs 50.74 crore in 2020-21, increased to Rs 83.72 crore in 2021-22 and further rose to Rs 88.29 crore in the

year 2022-23.