Umbrella body to deal with Bengaluru's mobility

BENGALURU: The Karnataka government is planning to set up the Bengaluru Mobility Management Authority (BMMA), bringing at least five civic agencies under one platform, taking a leaf out of the London model. The decision was taken at a high-level meeting on Wednesday, which was chaired by chief minister BS Yediyurappa.

Once the BMMA is formed, the city-related agencies such as BMTC, BBMP, BDA, BWSSB and Bengaluru Traffic Police are expected to work in close coordination while the proposed authority will take major decisions pertaining to mobility. The BMMA will come under the urban development department, it is learnt.



The chief minister’s office did not disclose further information regarding the role of BMMA. The previous Siddaramaiah and HD Kumaraswamy governments had announced a similar government body called the Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (UMTA) but it never took shape.

After the meeting, the CM’s office announced inducting 6,000 new buses to BMTC's fleet under a publicprivate partnership. A promise was also made to extend bus priority lane on all the 12 high-density corridors such as Mysuru Road, Bannerghatta Road and Kanakapura Road.

The government has also set an ambitious target of expanding the Metro to 300 km by 2025. In the official statement, the chief minister said the 72-km Phase II project would be ready by October-December of 2021 while the proposed Metro projects on Outer Ring Road and to the airport would be ready by 2023.

Mobility expert RK Misra, who made the presentation before the CM, said: "I am happy that the CM has shown the commitment and urgency to fix Bengaluru’s mobility challenges at a structural level by setting up a unified authority to plan, design, manage and monitor infrastructure and services. This is a transformational decision and will address fundamental challenges with longterm goals,” he said.