The Karnataka government on Friday, September 23, tabled a Bill to ensure coordination between agencies to manage traffic in the city and for setting up the required infrastructure. The Bengaluru Metropolitan Land Transport Authority (BMLTA) Bill will put in place a comprehensive plan to ensure better mobility in the congested city. This will be done by adapting sustainable transport models. Integrating land use and transport planning will be a significant part of this model. The Bill will also ensure hassle free mobility for differently-abled persons as well as senior citizens and children.
The Bill will provide for measures such as congestion parking, special purpose lanes to regulate travel demand and tolling for parking regulations, among others. The umbrella body BMLTA, will consist of 36 members, where the Chief Minister will be the ex-officio chairperson. The other members of the body will be representatives from agencies like Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority (BMRDA) and the Bengaluru police, among others.
With the Bill in place, there will be provisions for engaging the private sector for planning, development and management of mobility. This Bill aims to also use the private sector for ensuring effective execution by urban transport agencies, traffic management agencies and infrastructure development agencies.
The umbrella body will be responsible for implementing transport projects under the public-private partnership framework or through other means of finance. It will also recommend policy measures, permits, vehicle registrations, mobility services, handling of goods and traffic flow management to the state government. Other areas that will fall under the purview of the umbrella body are parking policy, non-motorised transport policy, transit-oriented development policy, multimodal integration policy and freight transport policy.
The agency will also put in place a traffic management plan at least once a year. This plan will include traffic flow plans, freight and construction vehicles movement plans, traffic-calming measures such as partial or full closure of streets, and plans for special occasions, incident management and emergency evacuation.