A bill to bring all the public mobility services in Bengaluru under one umbrella right from the autorickshaw to the city buses and metro trains was passed by the Karnataka Legislative Assembly on Tuesday.
All the transportation in Bengaluru city will come under the purview of the Bengaluru Metropolitan Land Transport Authority (BMLTA). The jurisdiction of the BMLTA will be 279 sq km.
“This Authority has been planned to integrate all the modes of public transport. It will take all the policy decisions related to urban mobility,” Karnataka Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister J C Madhuswamy as he moved the BMLTA bill proposed by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai in the Karnataka Assembly.
Why the Bill?
Traffic congesting is a major problem in India’s Silicon Valley. There have been complaints of a lack of coordination between various transport and civic bodies. As a result, public transport projects get delayed.
CM Bommai said that Bengaluru did not grow in a planned manner where the growth was one side while planning was on the other. “The roads did not widen but everyday 5,000 new vehicles are added to the city. The city has 1.3 crore people but soon the number of vehicles here will overtake the city population,” Bommai said.
Elaborating on the bill, the Law and Parliamentary Affairs said it seeks to supplement the National Urban Transport Policy (NUTP), which lays down a framework for the integration of various functions of institutions and departments to enable a holistic transport planning.
What will BMLTA do?
The BMLTA’s duties and functions will be to promote seamless mobility through sustainable urban transport and integration of land use and transport planning in the Urban Mobility Region by preparing and updating the Comprehensive Mobility Plan (CMP). It will also review and approve the City Mobility Investment Programme prepared in accordance will the CMP.
People who fail to comply with the rules, regulations, orders or directions of BMLTA can be punished with a fine of upto Rs 1 lakh, which will extend to Rs 2 lakh for a second violation, Indian Express reported. As per the law, BMLTA has the power to punish officials of various state government departments and agencies.
Who Will be Members of BMLTA?
According to the bill, the Chief Minister will be the ex-officio chairperson while the Bengaluru in- charge minister and the transport minister are the vice chairpersons.
The Chief Secretary, additional chief secretaries, Bengaluru Mayor, Bengaluru police Commissioner, commissioners of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, Bangalore Development Authority, Managing Directors of Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited, Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation, Bangalore Rail Infrastructure Development Enterprises, the Divisional Railway Manager and the Regional Officer of the National Highway Authority of India will be among the members of the Authority.
The bill has also proposed to make the experts in the area of urban mobility and representatives of civil society as its member.
(With PTI inputs)
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