DHARMAPURI : To curb the increasing number of accidents at Thoppur, the Dharmapuri Regional Transport Officer (RTO) has been taking stern measures to stop vehicles from speeding on the ghat road.
Explaining the enforcement, RTO, D Dhamodaran said, “The Thoppur Ghat road is a very sensitive area where a lot of accidents take place. In most cases, it is people failing to adhere to the rules. Hence, we have been using a radar speed gun and fines have been imposed. The speed limit at the Ghat road is 30kmph and vehicles crossing that speed limit will be fined immediately. In the past three years we have issued a total of 13,177 e-challans and Rs 95,46,275 fines have been issued.”
Apart from Thoppur, the RTO staff are also taking steps to enforce traffic regulations across the district. According to the data from the RTO, “A total of 7,589 vehicles were inspected out of which 2,984 vehicles were fined by the officials between January and June.”
Motor vehicle Inspector A K Dharanidar said, “We collected a total of Rs 32,68,244 pending tax amount from vehicle owners through these road inspections. Further, we also collected a total fine of Rs 36,83,656 from 2,984 people who failed to adhere to traffic rules. The checks are completely random and it is conducted in key areas across the district and violators are issued with fines on the spot.”
The regional transport officials had in the past six months booked and seized a total of 356 vehicles for failure of tax payment, for not having insurance, Fitness certificate, and Pollution Under Control Certificate. A total of 155 vehicles were fined for transporting people on goods vehicles, 86 vehicles were fined for carrying excess payload, 97 vehicles were fined for not having permits, 195 vehicles were fined for not having a fitness certificate, 556 vehicles were fined for failure to hold a PUC certificate, around 352 vehicles were fined for not having reflective stickers posted on their trucks and 211 vehicles were fined for not having red tail lights.