Shillong, Feb. 8: National Highway 40 along the Guwahati-Shillong road has most often than not been in the news for all the wrong reasons.

In a span of six days from February 1 to February 7, three major incidents took place along this busy highway, which held travellers to ransom for no fault of theirs.

On the afternoon of February 1, truck drivers attacked the integrated checkpoint at Umling, which is about 64km away from here, leaving two persons injured.

Like Friday, yesterday afternoon too, furious drivers of coal-laden trucks blocked the road at Umsamlem, before reaching Nongpoh, the district headquarters of Ri Bhoi where the national highway passes through, which led to a massive traffic jam.

The stretch at Umsamlem, which was blocked, was being used for smaller vehicles travelling to Shillong and Guwahati. The area is around 33km from here. State police and CRPF personnel were pressed into service and the personnel had to resort to lathicharge to clear the blockade.

Later at night, a mini truck at Umran Dairy was torched while unidentified persons assaulted a police constable at Umsamlem. The constable's bike was torched.

Official sources said even truck drivers at Bhoirymbong, which falls under Umiam police station, along the Shillong bypass route, had resorted to a similar blockade yesterday. However, with police intervention, the blockade was cleared.

"Following the blockade of the highway and the snarls that ensued, the traffic had a smooth flow only after 3am today," an official of Ri Bhoi district administration said.

The reasons behind these three incidents was because of the alleged inability of the workers at the integrated check point, which has the directorate of mineral resources, sales tax and transport offices in one area, to clear off the trucks at lightning speed.

The increase in the volume of trucks after the National Green Tribunal (NGT) allowed the transportation of coal has been phenomenal although the ban on extracting coal from the mines is still on.

"If the trucks carry more than the permissible limit of 9MT, then the extra load has to be offloaded. But we can say that out of every 10 trucks, only one would ensure that the load is not beyond the prescribed norm," an official source said.

The time for weighing trucks, which are loaded within the permissible limit, is around three minutes, but for overloaded trucks, the time taken could be beyond 15 minutes, the source said.

The trucks, the source said, load coal from the depots, which are mostly present in the East Jaintia Hills region and West Khasi Hills, and there are weighbridges at the depots.

Learning lessons from the two-day highway chaos, the administrations in Ri Bhoi, West Jaintia Hills, East Jaintia Hills, and East Khasi Hills have decided to hold back the trucks in various locations in these four districts.

Trucks are also being held at locations along the Shillong bypass route, which is connected to the national highway, and few trucks at a stretch are allowed to proceed towards the highway to avoid clogging.

The police and CRPF personnel are also patrolling the highway to ensure that truckers do not resort to agitation, which would hamper the traffic flow, the source said.

Yesterday, hundreds of vehicles had to travel at a snail's pace along the highway, and it took them more than eight hours to reach their homes in Shillong from Nongpoh. The distance between Shillong and Nongpoh is only around 55km.