Karnataka legislative assembly clears bill to integrate all modes of public transport

BELAGAVI: The Karnataka legislative assembly on Tuesday passed the long-pending Bengaluru Metropolitan Land Transport Authority Bill, 2022 that aims to streamline the ill-famed Bengaluru traffic and integrate public transport services and civic agencies under one roof for effective coordination.
Piloting the bill on CM Basavaraj Bommai's behalf, law and parliamentary affairs minister JC Madhuswamy said the bill has been drafted to supplement the Centre's National Urban Transport Policy.
Bommai said, "Bengaluru, which is currently one of the fastest-growing cities in India, did not grow in a planned manner as areas under gram panchayats and town municipalities with hardly any infrastructure were added to the city limits. We have also been adding at least 5,000 new vehicles every day to the city. If the trend continues, the vehicular population in Bengaluru will surpass the human population of 1.25 crore."
Bommai said the city's bottlenecks are largely due to the high-density national and state highways that merge into the city.
"Hence, we need to include all stakeholders such as NHAI, PWD, BBMP, BDA, Bengaluru Traffic Police, BMRDA, and others under one roof," the CM said, adding they have reached out to Indian Institute of Science (IISc) to study and submit a scientific report on traffic and its movement.
Madhuswamy said multiple departments and civic agencies are involved in the planning, execution, monitoring, and maintenance of mobility activities and empowered with different legislation, leading to the overlap of responsibilities and functions impeding the process of planning and implementation. Legislators cutting across party lines supported the bill and demanded some changes.