Bengaluru gets a unified transport governance through collective effort
Organisations, citizens, and decision-makers worked together to get the BMLTA bill passed
27December 2022, the day the Bengaluru Metropolitan Land Transport Authority (BMLTA) bill was passed, is a red-letter day for Bengaluru residents. Under BMLTA, the city’s existing transport agencies will be integrated under a unified authority.
What is BMLTA?
In 2006, the Ministry of Urban Development created the National Urban Transport Policy (NUTP) that recommended Unified Metropolitan Transport Authorities (UMTAs) for all million-plus cities. The Karnataka government introduced the Bengaluru Metropolitan Land Transport Authority (BMLTA) as Bengaluru’s UMTA in 2007. The final draft was formulated in 2021, and made BMLTA, headed by the chief minister, the ultimate authority in transportation matters in Bengaluru. It was introduced and accepted in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly in 2022.
If successfully implemented, Bengaluru will have multi-modal integration of transport services, travel information, common ticketing, fare fixation, traffic management, efficient feeder system, and reliable first and last mile connectivity. It will also help immensely in improvement of transport infrastructure, and research.
At present, more than 10 different government agencies are responsible for various aspects of Bengaluru’s transportation system. Inadvertently, these agencies find themselves in conflicting positions or competing for resources. In the absence of a holistic plan, progress is slow, and efforts often go wasted.
Why is BMLTA necessary for Bengaluru?
Footpaths, roads, autos, bus services, bus stops, taxis, metros, traffic management, parking, cycle lanes, street lights, ticketing, fares, and a lot more combine to form a city’s transportation system. At present, more than 10 different government agencies are responsible for these aspects of Bengaluru’s transportation system.
Some of these are: Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, Karnataka Transport Department, Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL), Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), and the Bengaluru City Traffic Branch.
Predictably, planning, implementation, and management of major projects in the city often get carried out in silo because of the lack of coordination and collaboration among the agencies. Inadvertently, these agencies also find themselves in conflicting positions or competing for resources. Even though they do their best, in the absence of a holistic plan and a unified direction, progress is slow, and efforts often go wasted.
“We had to bring BMLTA into public and political discourse.” — Gowri Omanakuttan, Bengaluru Moving
BMLTA, as an overarching body, presents a solution to this. It will be a holistic system that will frame policies and take informed decisions for the transportation needs of the city.
Several organisations in the development sector have been keenly studying and engaging with various aspects of the city’s transportation system for years. They understood the impact of an integrated authority on transportation governance in a city like Bengaluru.
“We had to bring BMLTA into public and political discourse,” said Gowri Omanakuttan. Omanakuttan is from Bengaluru Moving, a collective working towards sustainable mobility in Bengaluru. She was one of the core members at the helm of the entire project. “We regularly engaged with people through media platforms. The digital outreach programme by Jhatkaa was also an important part of the programme,” she added.
“It is important to show the citizens how taking action would bring value to their lives.” — Avijit Michael, executive director at Jhatkaa
Reaching out to citizens
Jhatkaa, an organisation committed to building citizen power and engagement, led the digital outreach initiative to sensitise, inform, and involve citizens. “Our key theory of change is that to create impact on the ground, citizens have to engage in democracy and governance,” says Avijit Michael, executive director at Jhatkaa.
Jhatkaa was committed to spreading awareness about the BMLTA bill primarily through online mediums. A person commits to a cause as per his or her circumstances and motivation. “We have something we call the “ladder of engagement,” which is different steps a citizen can take according to their capacity,” Michael says.
People often respond to the issues that affect them or that have an emotional impact on them. “It is important to show the citizens how taking action would bring value to their lives,” he added. A lot of messaging around BMLTA emphasised on improving transportation and air quality in the city.
Jhatkaa’s digital outreach efforts led to more than 15,000 impressions on social media, while emails were sent to more than 85,000 Bengaluru residents.
“BMLTA Act is a milestone achievement in the multi-modal transport system. However, to reap the benefits of the act, the first step would be to make this agency a functional and effective institution that has a focus lens of monitoring and regulating Bengaluru’s chaotic traffic congestion. The BMLTA should also plan assessments based on data and scientific analysis whilst keeping the interest of citizens in mind.” — Shri. Santosh Nargund, Head, Civic Participation, Janaagraha
Taking BMLTA to decision-makers
Omanakuttan explains that one of the major milestones in the BMLTA journey was the Call Your MLA programme, through which citizen volunteers actively called and wrote to 24 members of the legislative assembly (MLAs) and made a case for the BMLTA bill.
Following the success of Call Your MLA, a Meet Your MLA programme was designed. A collective of 14 organisations was formed. Bangalore Political Action Committee (B.PAC), a non-partisan citizen’s group, led the programme with member organisations of the Sustainable Mobility Network, such as Asar and Jhatkaa.
These organisations worked to sensitise the citizens and inform the polity through in-person meetings. Closely after the Meet Your MLA programme, the bill was passed in the Karnataka assembly. Both Omanakuttan and Michael found the MLAs and other decision-makers to be supportive of the BMLTA.
The bill was moved by Karnataka’s Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister J C Madhuswamy, and proposed by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai.
BMLTA will bring a monumental transformation into the lives of Bengaluru residents; it will help in creating clean, equitable, gender-sensitive, and accessible transport in the city.
Waiting for implementation
A year later, the city is still waiting for the Bengaluru Metropolitan Land Transport Authority to be established. Nayan M, Campaigns Manager for Air Pollution and Climate Change at Jhatkaa, has been following up with the implementation.
Changes at the bureaucratic level are often cited as the reason for delay, but there is no clear response, he says. At present, Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) is still following the outdated Revised Master Plan (RMP) from 2015. The city needs a fresh masterplan which frames guidelines for the city’s future development, and allows for a smooth implementation of BMLTA.
BMLTA could be a turning point for transport governance in Bengaluru. While there are some delays, members of the Sustainable Mobility Network, who fought hard for the bill to be passed, are optimistic and eagerly await its implementation. BMLTA will bring a monumental transformation into the lives of Bengaluru residents; it will help in creating clean, equitable, gender-sensitive, and accessible transport in the city.
Do you think the BMLTA bill will help Bengaluru city? Let us know in the comments.
Write to us with your thoughts, feedback, and/or ideas for collaboration at sustainablemobilitynetwork@gmail.com.
