‘Heavy road machinery not under Motor Vehicles Act; don’t insist for registration’

NEW DELHI: The Centre on Monday asked states to not insist on registration and driving license for heavy earth moving machinery, saying they do not fall under the Motor Vehicle Act. It said that road building and rehabilitation equipment besides heavy earth moving machinery do not come under Central Motor Vehicle Rules (CMVR), 1989.

“Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has clarified that the heavy road making machinery is not a motor vehicle, and is not covered under MV Act. The Ministry has requested the States and UTS to not to insist upon registration and driving licence for these machines,” the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways said in a statement. In a letter addressed to the transport departments of all the states and Union Territories, the ministry has informed that it has received a number of representations regarding road building and rehabilitation equipment, wherein concern regarding registration of cold recycling machines and soil stabilisation machine (road building and rehabilitation equipment) under CMVR, 1989 has been raised. “The representations have clarified that Cold milling machines are used to salvage the crust of the existing bituminous pavement to recover the asphalt material and re-use them to conserve aggregate and bitumen and save the associates costs of mining and crushing. Also the extracted bitumen leads to saving of bituminous thus saving of forex,” the statement said. Also, the work awarded to the concessionaire by the employer is within a given range of chainage, the statement said, adding these equipment work in a defined region.

Further, the operating speed of the above mentioned equipment is 5-10 kmph and these equipment are deployed at the work site through trailers, it noted.