Chennai, Arp 6 (PTI) Holding no fundamental right of the commercial truck owners or the users of the National Highways will be affected, the first bench of the Madras High Court on Wednesday refused to interfere with the orders of the Erode district Collector of 2019 that imposed total ban on operating motor vehicles on Dhimbam Ghat road passing through Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve (STR) on the Udhagamandalam-Bengaluru national highway, during night.

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The bench of Chief Justice M N Bhandari and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy, however, allowed the road users to operate their vehicles till 9 p.m.

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The bench was disposing of a batch of PIL petitions from advocate S P Chockalingam and others, for and against the Collector's order banning movement of vehicles from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. the following day.

The bench held that the other conditions restricting getting down along the Ghat Road, stopping/parking the vehicles inside the Tiger Reserve, banning littering, imposing speed limit and supervising the same, physically by establishing the check-points or through CCTV camera at regular intervals, are all reasonable ones sustainable in law.

In addition, the bench stipulated that no commercial or cargo vehicle, which has 12 wheels and above and truck/trailers with a total weight of 16.2 tonnes and above, shall be permitted to enter Dhimbam Ghat Road for any purpose whatsoever. Trucks and trailers, upto 10 wheels and with weight less than 16.20 tonnes alone will be permitted to use the Ghat Road as a thoroughfare either from the Tamil Nadu to Karnataka or vice-versa between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. only.

These vehicles can travel with the maximum speed limit of 30 kms/hr on the plains and 20 kms/hr on the Ghat Road portion. The average time taken will be calculated and will be checked at the entry and exit points so that they maintain the exact time limit and will be subject to further action and penalty, if either they over-speed or stop in between, except due to any traffic jam or accident or other reasonable causes. No littering from these vehicles will be permitted and no person can alight except in places authorized by the Forest department .

As regards passenger buses, either government owned or private, for which due permits had been granted under the Motor Vehicles Act, the bench said that they can be plied through the Dhimbam Ghat Road between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. These buses can halt in the concerned village itself and the trip can be started after 6 a.m. the next day.

The villagers, tribals, forest dwellers and agriculturists shall be given passes with photographs along with description of the vehicle. There won't be any time limit for them.

The authorities shall install CCTV cameras at every 5 km from the start until the end of the entire stretch of 27 kms of the road. Wherever electricity connection is available, the same can be used and wherever it is not available, it shall be installed with the help of solar power units.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)