HYDERABAD: The National Highways and Motorway Police (NH&MP) slapped a total fine of over Rs600,000 on transporters for overcharging and overloading passengers and made them return the excess fare of Rs500,000 to passengers travelling in interior areas of Sindh, Punjab, and other provinces to celebrate Eid with their families and relatives on Friday.

NH&MP Sector-3 focal person Naeem Siddiqui told Dawn that the NH&MP imposed a total fine of Rs639,000 on 595 transporters of buses in terms of challan for violating traffic rules, including overloading and overcharging.

The police also made the transporters return the illegally collected exorbitant fares of Rs568,000 to 1,082 passengers in a single day (on Friday).

Moreover, he said that the NH&MP imposed penalties of Rs1,920,900 on over 1,200 transporters of buses in terms of challan.

They also paid Rs2,414,825 excess amount to more than 3,550 passengers in NH&MP Sector-3, including Karachi Lyari Expressway, Nooriabad, Jamshoro, Hyderabad and Matiari during a campaign launched from Aug 28 to late Friday night (Sept 1) by the NH&NP.

The campaign was aimed at imposing heavy fines on transporters who were cashing in on the situation and give maximum relief to passengers.

He said that the campaign was launched throughout the country on the directive of NH&MP Inspector General Dr Kaleem Imam, supervised by NH&MP N-5 South Zone DIG Nasir Mehmood Satti and implemented by NH&MP Sector-3 SSP Karamullah Soomro.

He added that the campaign would be restarted on the third day of Eidul Azha and would last for a couple of days to give relief to passengers who would be coming back after celebrating Eid.

Sukkur Motorway police impose Rs2m fines The Sukkur Motorway police imposed a fine of around Rs2 million on passenger coaches for speeding, overloading and other traffic offences from Sukkur-Moro to Ubauro of Sukkur section, our Sukkur correspondent adds.

SSP Motorway Police Ghulam Sarwar Bhayo said that challans of around 1,900 different vehicles on the way to Punjab from Karachi, Peshawar and towards Balochistan were made for violating traffic rules.

They had accommodated extra passengers like animals in passenger coaches due to rush of travellers, he said. He said that duties of extra police force had been assigned to tackle the situation due to Eid.