BMLTA has a lot on its platter

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai made a revealing statement on Tuesday during the discussion on the Bengaluru Metropolitan Land Transport Authority (BMLTA) Bill. As many as 5,000 new vehicles are added to city roads every day and in Bengaluru which has a population of 1.3 crore, the number of vehicles may soon overtake the city’s population, he cautioned.

The CM also said his government is in touch with the Bengaluru-headquartered Indian Institute of Science (IISc) to do a study in this regard. Now that the BMLTA has been formed, citizens can look forward to much easier traffic on roads if the authority does its task properly and ensures coordination between various transport modes like metro trains, BMTC buses and cabs and autoricksaws.

In fact one can be sure that a lot more people would be amenable to using public transport if it was made more convenient for them than relying on private vehicles and sweating it out in city traffic during the morning and evening peak hours to reach their destinations. In a city spread across more than 800 square km, surprisingly very little attention has been paid to ensuring connectivity to all parts including far-flung areas in the outskirts.

Many of the localities on the city periphery were once villages which were added to the BBMP in 2007-08. People have to wait and wait for buses or private vans to transport them closer to the city where they can board a bus or cab. Not much thought has been given to drawing up an elaborate plan to fix connectivity issues and so one hopes the BMLTA wil have high on its priority list the question of connecting the city’s suburbs to the central parts.

Last mile connectivity is another issue on which one hears far more complaints nowadays and more so with Namma Metro set to reach more and more localities. The question of profitability no doubt is a serious concern but if there are not enough passengers for the bigger buses, one can always utilise smaller vehicles like vans to help out commuters particularly those trying to reach home late in the night after a metro ride, to do so without shelling out hundreds for cabs.

Accidents are another concern in Bengaluru and one sometimes wonders why they are happening despite vehicular movement reduced to a crawl from morning to evening. Monday saw a traffic cop stationed at a signal in the city, left with a broken leg after a speeding car knocked him down. Reports say that drivers distracted by the calls on cell phones are not likely to pay enough attention to the road and could cause accidents and so would those speeding without paying attention to the prescribed limits, endangering the lives of others on the road.

Drunken driving is another cause for concern and more so at a time when revelry is in the air with New Year celebrations round the corner. The traffic and transport scenario in the IT City no doubts leaves a lot to be desired but than Bengaluru also has some unique advantages-it has huge lung spaces like Lalbagh and Cubbon Park right in its heart which offer an oasis of hope from the choking fumes and noxious vehicular emissions.

Roads in the centrals parts of the city are pretty wide enough for comfortable vehicular movement and aided by a widespread metro network and a well drawn up bus service, there is no reason why Bengalureans have to fret and fume over their wasted hours waiting and waiting for a convenient mode of transport.