The Ministry of Public Works plans to install underground scales at weigh stations to eliminate overloaded vehicle transportation, which is the main factor damaging roads. The underground scales will be built before the weigh stations along the road, said Minister of Public Works Sun Chanthol, adding that the ministry is already testing the first underground scales in Kandal province. “The underground scales will be built in the provinces and now we have a successful test of the first underground scale,” Chanthol said. “Before, some 200 vehicles were weighed a month at the weigh station, but after we installed the underground scale located ahead of the station, about 100 vehicles were weighed daily,” Chanthol said. “It is an efficient tool to strengthen the no-overloaded transport.” With the underground scales, a record of the weight of each vehicle passing over the road will be recorded with a photo shot of the vehicle’s number plates. “If any vehicle passes over the underground scales and doesn’t pass through the weigh station, officials of the ministry in collaboration with police will temporarily hold the vehicle,” he said. “I have advised officials in charge of vehicle weigh stations to work transparently because we now plan to equip the underground scales to monitor the overloaded vehicles and the officials at each station,” he said, warning that officials cannot get away with accepting bribes. Vehicles with an overloaded weight of 20 percent compared to the allowed weight are subject to be impounded temporarily and owners of the vehicles are fined according to the Law on Transportation. “Plenty of vehicles which were 20 percent overweight have been held for more than a year and some owners of those vehicles have intervened for their release, but they failed,” Chanthol said. “It is implementation of the law.”