Time ripe for Bengaluru Metropolitan Land Transport Authority

The key to transformation and improved quality of life for the residents of Bengaluru city lies with the Bengaluru Metropolitan Land Transport Authority (BMLTA)

Bengaluru is undergoing a transformation—with bus and cycle lanes, metro and suburban trains, paid public parking, grants to ward committees for improving footpaths—India’s IT capital is on its way to becoming a modern city with a sustainable and accessible multi-modal transport system, thereby reducing congestion, improving air quality, and lowering carbon emissions.

The key to this transformation and improved quality of life for the residents of Bengaluru city lies with the Bengaluru Metropolitan Land Transport Authority (BMLTA).

BMLTA explained

Bengaluru has multiple transport and land use agencies such as Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL), Rail Infrastructure Development Corporation (Karnataka) Ltd (K-RIDE), Bruhath Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), and the Transport Department.

These agencies function independently and lack alignment in terms of planning and execution, due to which the city misses out on important integration opportunities, which ends up worsening congestion.

BMLTA can serve as a unified metropolitan transport authority (UMTA) that convenes, plans, and coordinates all transport and mobility projects based on a long-term mobility plan built on principles of sustainable transport and mobility. Through a scientific understanding of the city’s commute patterns and habits, the BMLTA can reduce air pollution and carbon emissions and make commuting in the city reliable, safe, and affordable for all.

How it benefits citizens

It is theoretically possible to take the bus to J P Nagar metro station, hop on to the Metro to Yeshwanthpura, and then catch the suburban train to Whitefield. However, this is cumbersome as there is no integration in the ticketing and scheduling systems of the different modes of transport. An agency such as BMLTA can not only offer seamless integration of these modes, but also ensure that auto-rickshaws and cycles / e-cycles are readily available at first- and last-mile points.

After years of public campaigns such as #ChukuBukuBeku, Bengaluru is finally getting a full-fledged suburban rail network. However, there is limited coordination between K-RIDE (Special Purpose Vehicle responsible for the suburban rail) and BMRCL (Namma Metro) because of which they have missed out on opportunities to align their plans in the case of the Cantonment station and their respective airport lines. An empowered BMLTA would be responsible for integrating such plans in the best interest of all citizens that reside in the larger metropolitan region around Bengaluru.

Lessons from other UMTAs

Several state governments have tried out a version of the UMTA but a common reason for failure has been positioning the Authority within the larger governance and political structures. BMLTA, therefore, has an advantage of learning from the past efforts by carefully positioning the agency within the political and administrative governance structures in Karnataka. There is also an opportunity towards setting up of UMTAs across the state.

Given that Karnataka Chief Minister is the minister-in-charge of Bengaluru Metropolitan Region (BMR) and the head of Bengaluru Metropolitan Planning Committee (BMPC), he should be the Chairman of the BMLTA with the Transport Minister, Urban Development Minister, BBMP Mayor and other departments/agencies as its members.

The BMLTA needs to be envisioned as a peer agency of the Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority (BMRDA) which together can eventually become a part of the Bengaluru Metropolitan Planning Commission (BMPC), if and when that gets established. This positioning of the BMLTA could give the agency functional independence for the time being and lessen the chances of legal hurdles.

Karnataka is fortunate to have an organisation like the Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT) with mobility experts and planners with practical experience of mobility challenges in Bengaluru. Having implemented sustainable mobility initiatives for many years such as cycle day, bus lanes and cycle lanes, DULT is ideally positioned to steer our city in the right direction. The DULT should be an integral part of BMLTA and must be given the task of creating a new mobility master plan in coordination with the city master plan.

What next?

Most people agree that the current draft of BMLTA is not ideal and it is better to take the time to strengthen it instead of passing a weak legislation that may not give us the intended benefits. We believe the path forward is to constitute a legislative sub-committee with city legislators and conduct deliberations with experts and members of civil society.

We have lost precious time already and we urge all our city MLAs to come together in the best interests of our city, expedite the process of democratic deliberations via the legislative committee, before tabling and passing the bill.

(Sanjay Sridhar is a specialist on Governance and Public Policy, Climate Change and Sustainability; Srinivas Alavilli is with Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy)

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