Articulated vehicles carrying cargoes exceeding 12 tonnes on federal roads across Nigeria, will henceforth pay between N1 million and N10 million fine.
The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, said this on Thursday while inspecting the refurbished Digital Truck Weigh Bridge at Old Toll Gate along Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
Mr Fashola said the measure was not just about tolling but geared towards the Highway Development Initiatives of the Federal Government to curb abuse of highways causing quick degeneration.
He said overloaded trucks usually constituted danger to themselves, the infrastructure and other road users and appealed to the media to join in sensitisation to end the ugly trend.
Now, those specifications are global. So, they are not Nigerian made, every country in the world has subscribed to them. And so, if we see things in other parts that we like how they look, it is because they are properly used.
He said as minister, his office empowered him to make regulations, hence the new calibrated bills for contravention of axle loads.
Fashola said the fines against erring articulated vehicles were from N1millio to over N10 million to serve as deterrent.
He said the federal government was fixing weighbridges to regulate axle load to increase the lifespan of the highways while at the same time creating thousands of jobs.
The minister said the weighbridges would generate 50,000 direct jobs and 200,000 indirect employment opportunities to boost the economic livelihood of Nigerians.
Mr Fashola said the weighbridge was among others built with international standard to preserve the lifespan of the roads and that it would be put to use upon completion of the ongoing Lagos-Ibadan Expressway project.
The Minister explained that the planned return of tolling and the Weighbridge, were part of a Highway Development Initiative that had the enforcement side, and economic value through direct and indirect employment opportunities.
Fashola said the facility had the capacity to divert trucks to inspection points as well as ware house to cater for excess charge and trans-loading in collaboration with transport unions.
Earlier, the Federal Controller of Works in Lagos State, Mr Olukayode Popoola, explained that the weigh bridge constructed in 1974 would prevent trucks with excessive load causing increased spending on road repairs.