Srinagar, June 23: The Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution sponsored –two hi-tech cranes for testing accuracies of Weigh-bridges –rolled out on the City streets Tuesday. The vehicles were flagged off by Commissioner Secretary of state’s CAPD, Asghar Samoon.
 An official spokesman said: “The mobile-Kits worth Rs 125 lacs comprise of crane fitted on the vehicle and 5 tonne test-weights of denominations 1000Kg,500Kg,200kg,100Kg.”
 “These heavyweights,” he said “are lifted and dropped on the platform of the Weigh-bridge (to be examined) automatically by the crane attached to the vehicle.”
 “Pertinently till now,” he said, “the Inspectors of the Legal Metrology in Kashmir were manually  calibrating/verifying Weigh-bridges by placing 50 Kg  denomination commercial weights on the platform.”
 “Under Weights and Measures laws, the owner of the Weigh-bridge has to keep one-tenth commercial weights of the capacity of the bridge for calibrating the scale and has to engage labourers for keeping the weights on the platform of the scale. The calibration process of Weigh-bridges is highly cumbersome,” he added.
 Deliberating further, he said: “It has been estimated that an error of 5 % in the measurement on a weigh-bridge making 20 measurements a day may result in loss to the extent of Rs 5 lac a day. The inaccurate scale not only causes a substantial loss of revenue to the Govt but also to the consumers.”
 Officials said the new testing machines for Weigh-bridges would make the calibration process more convenient and the accuracies of such scales can be efficiently checked.
 While one of the vans will be operational in Kashmir, officials said, the other will operate in Ladakh region.

Lastupdate on : Wed, 23 Jun 2010 21:30:00 Mecca time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 23 Jun 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 24 Jun 2010 00:00:00 IST