Roads ministry proposes Centre’s power to set speed limit for NH

NEW DELHI: In a bid to clear commuters’ confusion over speed limits on national highways and highways, the road transport ministry has proposed that the Center should be responsible for setting these limits, while state governments would retain the power to notify norms for all other roads under their jurisdiction.The ministry recently shared a series of proposed changes that include removing ambiguity around state and local police speed limits on national highways and expressways. Since local authorities set speed limits, commuters who don’t use NH regularly won’t notice this and end up getting fined.Currently, the Ministry of Road Transport publishes maximum speed limits for all categories of roads, but state agencies can lower this limit.People familiar with the plan said the transport ministry proposed amending Section 112 of the MV Act, which empowers state governments to set minimum and maximum speed limits. Likewise, Section 113, which empowers states to regulate, restrict or prohibit the use of vehicles on the basis of weight, will also be amended.For the sake of clarity, it was proposed that, in the case of NHs, the power to specify norms would be the responsibility of the ministry and states would be free to set limits on their roads.“Though the speed norm for motor vehicles on national highways is 100 km/h, state and local police frequently reduce the speed to 60-70 km/h on sections of national highways that pass through urban areas. This creates a lot of compliance issues for commuters. The proposed amendments will address this issue. Under the National Highways (Land and Traffic) Control Act, highway management agencies designated by the national highways agencies have the power to control land, manage traffic and eliminate unauthorized occupation on highways. So, no more confusion. ” said an official.