The district administration will launch a crackdown on heavy vehicles parked illegally along the 3km stretch of NH-33 passing through the city.

Acting on the directive of state road construction secretary K.K. Soan, East Singhbhum deputy commissioner (DC) Ravi Shankar Shukla on Saturday directed Dhalbhum subdivisional officer (SDO) Chandan Kumar to coordinate with district transport officer (DTO) Dinesh Ranjan and Mango Notified Area Committee special officer Deepak Sahay and initiate a crackdown soon.

“The team has completed a survey, and the illegally parked vehicles will be towed away and a fine imposed on their owners soon. The vehicles are hampering the road widening work,” DC Shukla said .

The stretch links Jamshedpur with Ranchi and is also used by vehicles coming from Odisha, Bengal and other parts of the country. Over 60,000 vehicles, including long-distance buses, ply on this stretch every day.

Sources in National Highways Authority of India’s (NHAI) state unit office said Ahmedabad-based Iron Trianglem, which was engaged in widening the 44.20km stretch between Saherbera in Chandil and Mohulia near Jamshedpur at a cost of Rs 380 crore, had lodged a complaint with the road construction department and Jharkhand High Court over the delay.

“Officials of the agency had in their complaint said they were facing difficulty in completing the widening work along the 3km stretch of NH-33 because of the long queues of heavy vehicles parked along it,” the NHAI official said.

DTO Ranjan confirmed the launch of the crackdown.

“We have already warned vehicle operators. Vehicles that are still found parked there would be towed away and a fine imposed on the operators. We are waiting for Dhalbhum SDO’s nod to start the crackdown in the presence of adequate police personnel,” Ranjan said.

According to officer in-charge of Ulidih police station Pankaj Kumar Singh, on an average, 2-3 fatal mishaps take place on the stretch in a month.