Acting on the Lahore High Court (LHC) orders, the authorities on Tuesday barred the vehicles not bearing M-Tag from plying on motorways, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

The LHC had banned the movement of vehicles without M-Tag in order to lessen the burden of traffic on motorways and hence contribute to the reduction in smog which the Punjab government has so far failed to control effectively.

Those travelling on M-4 can get the M-Tag from Pindi Bhattian inter-change while those commuting on M-3 can get it from Darkhana Toll Plaza.    

IG Motorways Inam Ghani has said that vehicles’ registration papers are not required for obtaining the M-Tag. “Motorists can get it by telling the authorities either their cell number or national identity card number,” he informed.

He appealed to the people to cooperate with the motorway administration in order to make the journey safer and reduce environmental pollution. “People are advised to dial 1313 for further information,” he added.  

According to the TV channel, there were long lines of vehicles at inter-changes which wanted to enter the motorways but have no M-Tags. The Motorway police were now facilitating them in getting the M-Tag.

On December 3 last, the Lahore High Court had made it mandatory to install M-Tag on all cars travelling on the Motorways by December 7. The LHC had also ordered to set up maximum booths to assign M-Tag to vehicles and to facilitate the buyers.

The court ordered initiating steps for creating large-scale awareness about M-Tag on national highways. 

Justice Shahid Karim issued the interim order on the request of citizen Haroon Farooq. 

Justice Shahid Karim while hearing the case regarding smog in Lahore, remarked that vehicles without M-Tag were the prime cause of producing smog. The court also ordered that plying a car without carrying a driving licence would now cost Rs2,000 fine.

Justice Shahid Karim said that fixing the fine of one-way violation at Rs2,000 yielded positive results.

Reporter Fahad Bhatti