Shillong, April 13: Truck owners will be held responsible for any overloading in the transportation of extracted coal in Meghalaya that could lead to traffic congestion, Meghalaya transport commissioner I.W. Ingty has warned.

On March 25, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had allowed the resumption of transportation of extracted coal within and outside the state within May 31, 2015.

Today, Ingty ordered that all those involved in coal transportation should strictly comply with the NGT orders.

Ingty said coal-laden trucks should pass through only designated weighbridges as identified by the NGT and notified by the government.

"Trucks should strictly restrict carriage of load upto 9 metric tonnes and no overloading is allowed. In the event of overloading, resulting in traffic congestion, the owner of the vehicle concerned would be responsible and liable to penalty. Action would be taken according to law," he added.

The warning apparently came came after three incidents, occurring along National Highway 40 (better known as Guwahati-Shillong Road) in Ri Bhoi district in February, led to chaos.

In February, truckers had not only vandalised the offices of the directorate of mineral resources and sales tax at Umling but had also blocked the highway.

When the ban on coal mining and transportation was ordered on April 17, 2014, the NGT had later allowed the transportation of extracted coal for a period of three months.

The deadline for transportation of the extracted coal ended in February this year. The second period for transportation of extracted coal, which has begun, will culminate on May 31.

According to the March 25 order, the NGT asked coal miners to pay the royalty on coal within three weeks from the date the order was issued.

On March 30, the tribunal ordered that in addition to the royalty payable, the state government should collect 10 per cent of the market value of coal per metric tonne from each person who had transported coal in the past or would transport in future, without exception.

The amount collected should then be deposited in the Meghalaya Environment Protection and Restoration Fund to be maintained by the state under the direct control of the chief secretary. The fund should be used only for restoration of environment and for necessary remedial and preventive measures with regard to environment.

As far as the amount of coal available for transportation is concerned, it was stated before the tribunal that 36,59,152 metric tonnes of coal had been declared to be extracted by the mine owners and upon assessment by a committee formed by the tribunal, it was found to be 37,36,325 MT.

It was also pointed out that the extracted coal declared by the miner, which could not be verified, was around 87,85,147 metric tonnes.

Moreover, it was mentioned that the value of the extracted coal was approximately Rs 18,000 crore. On subsequent dates, the committee informed the tribunal that on physical verification, 6.3 metric tonnes of extracted coal valued at Rs 3,078 crore was lying in the state and was expected to fetch royalty of approximately Rs 400 crore.

During the course of arguments, it was found from the statement filed on behalf of the state government that the state of Meghalaya has permitted 17,83,359 metric tonnes of coal to be transported in terms of the directions of the tribunal and recommendations made by the committee.

"If the above quantum of coal is taken as correct at its face value and is multiplied by approximate value of coal per metric tonne as earlier determined by the state and as mentioned in the report, the value of the total coal comes to Rs 35,67,18,000. This means that of the coal found to be lying, which is worth more than Rs 3,000 crore, only coal worth Rs 356 crore approximately has been permitted to be transported, leaving the balance of coal worth Rs 2,644 crore," the tribunal stated in its March 25 order.

The tribunal, while allowing resumption of coal transportation, had ordered that all weighbridges should maintain due computerised records of all the coal that is permitted to be transported from any of the 12 approved points in the state.

The government had earlier informed the tribunal that in all the 11 districts of the state, 308 cases of violation were registered and 605 trucks and 2,675.63 tonnes of coal were seized in addition to 40 bags of coal.