mobility collective

Nineteen different departments will be able to sit at tables and discuss matters related to urban mobility once all the hurdles are cleared with the draft Bengaluru Metropolitan Land Transport Authority (BMLTA) bill.

This will end the lack of planning and coordination that has crippled the city, many believe.

The BMLTA bill is being billed as the answer to the City of Transport for London (TfL), the entity responsible for most transport projects in London.

While the TfL is headed by the Mayor of London, interestingly, the BMLTA will be headed by the Chief Minister himself.

Why BMLTA?

The BMLTA aims to address four components. The authority leads the transport planning agenda and builds constructive urban relationships with land use. It is expected to help prepare a Comprehensive Mobility Plan (CMP), set standards, provide uniform planning parameters, develop modeling tools and provide quality output to the implementing agencies.

Another major function of BMLTA is to monitor project delivery and monitoring outcomes through defined service-level benchmarks by reviewing annual implementation plans. This is expected to help in continuously updating planning tools and designing effective interventions in urban transport. Other roles include: traffic management planning, regional mobility investment programs and city mobility investment programs. Some of the members of the BMLTA include: Department of Transport, Bangalore Development Authority, Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike and Bangalore Traffic Police.

Besides the Chief Minister and the heads of 19 departments, the BMLTA will have two experts on urban mobility, three representatives of civil society and two academicians.

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a senior DULT The official said that the bill will definitely be introduced in the winter session of the assembly. “We were hopeful that the bill would be introduced in the monsoon session. But since the draft was submitted recently, there was not much time,” said the official.

Some civic groups are of the view that the BMLTA should be headed by a mayor so that the chief minister has more time to focus on the remaining tasks. Karnataka.

Vijayan Menon, a senior member of the Citizen Action Forum, was not happy with the draft BMLTA Bill: “We do not want another parastatal agency like this. BESCOM Or BDA The information of which is not known to the Municipal Corporation. The BMLTA is likely to be an opaque organisation. The bill does not pass the scrutiny of the Constitution. The mayor should have been made the head of the authority.”

Menon said the bill shows that bureaucrats and ministers are refusing to give control of the city to the mayor or councillors.

“The reason for this is that Bengaluru is the only place in the state that generates revenue. The chief minister and ministers should focus on converting other districts into Bengaluru and leave the local administration to the council,” he said.