K'taka Assembly passes Bill to bring all public transport in Bengaluru under one authority

The Karnataka Assembly on Tuesday (December 27) passed the Bengaluru Metropolitan Land Transport Authority (BMLTA) Bill, which aims to bring all the public mobility services under one umbrella – from autorickshaw to the city buses and metro trains. The Bill seeks to establish an umbrella body on the lines of the Transport for London to streamline Bengaluru’s mobility.

Chaired by the Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, the BMLTA will bring all key policy making stakeholders under one roof.

According to Karnataka law and parliamentary affairs minister J C Madhuswamy, Bengaluru city transportation will come under the BMLTA’s purview and the jurisdiction of the proposed authority 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,” he said as he moved the BMLTA bill proposed by the CM in the Assembly.

The minister explained this bill 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.

Backing the bill, Bommai, who is also in charge of Bengaluru affairs, said Bengaluru did not grow in a planned manner where the growth was one side while planning was on the other. While many cities grow vertically, Bengaluru grew horizontally, he said.

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“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.

He also underlined the need for a scientific study and in this regard the Bengaluru-headquartered Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has been contacted to do the study.
The CM said that the 7,000 cameras procured under the Nirbhaya Scheme are functioning.
Due to these measures, the penalties collected from traffic violators using the cameras have increased much beyond the collection through physical checking.

The government is also studying global examples. “There are traffic jams in Shanghai despite having high-speed trains to reach the airport in 30 minutes. London and New York, too. We’re studying how they’re tackling traffic,” Bommai said.

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.

It has also proposed to make the experts in the area of urban mobility and representatives of civil society as its members.

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.