Road ministry calls for Centre to set speed limits for national highways

As speed limits are set by local authorities, commuters, who don’t use national highways frequently, fail to note this and end up paying fines.

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Seeking to end confusion among commuters over speed limits on national highways and expressways, the road transport ministry has proposed that the authority be with the Centre to set these restrictions while state governments retain the power to notify the norms for all other roads within their jurisdiction.The ministry recently shared a host of proposed changes, including this, to end ambiguities over speed limits that state government and local police put on national highways and expressways. As speed limits are set by local authorities, commuters, who don’t use national highways frequently, fail to note this and end up paying fines. At present, the road transport ministry notifies the maximum speed limit for all categories of roads, but state agencies can reduce this. People aware about the plan said that the ministry proposes to amend Section-112 of the Motor Vehicles Act, which empowers state governments to set both minimum and maximum speed limits. Similarly, Section 113, which empowers states to regulate, restrict, or prohibit the use of vehicles based on weight, would be amended.To bring clarity, it has been proposed that in the case of national highways , the power to specify the norms will rest with the ministry, and states will be free to set limits for their roads. “While, the notified speed norms on national highway for cars is 100kmph, states and local police often reduce this to 60-70kmph on national highway stretches passing through urban areas. This causes a lot of compliance issues for commuters. The proposed amendments will address this. Under the Control of National Highways (Land and Traffic) Act, highway administrations appointed by national highway agencies have the authority to control land, manage traffic, and remove unauthorised occupations on highways. Hence, there will be no more confusion,” said an official.