The vehicles carrying load greater than the permissible limits would be penalized from May 01, 2009. This was decided in a high level meeting chaired by NHA Member Finance Zafar Iqbal Gondal here in Islamabad today. Representatives from Goods Transport agencies and Truck Owner Association also participated in the meeting. Speaking on the occasion, the Member Finance informed the meeting that overloading was the single most factors responsible for the destruction of national highways and motorways. He said the authority had to spend more than 10 billion rupees each year for the maintenance of roads damaged by overloaded trucks. He said that road infrastructure was a national asset and therefore needed to be protected against the menace of overloading. He said a detailed policy was being chalked out in order to minimize the damaging effects on our highways and all the provincial governments and other stakeholders were taken on board in this connection. He also informed the meeting that details about the permissible load limits for different vehicles would soon be publicized through national media after which the vehicles violating the rules would be fined heavily. He said NHA had established a number of weigh stations on motorways and highways for this purpose and more weigh stations would soon be established to tackle with the problem effectively.