The Bengaluru Metropolitan Land Transport Authority (BMLTA) Bill, 2022

December 28, 2022

The Karnataka Legislative Assembly has passed The Bengaluru Metropolitan Land Transport Authority (BMLTA) Bill, 2022 recently.

What is The Bengaluru Metropolitan Land Transport Authority (BMLTA) Bill, 2022?

The Bengaluru Metropolitan Land Transport Authority (BMLTA) Bill, 2022 is applicable to the Urban Mobility Region of Bengaluru.
The Bill was launched to regulate the development, operation, maintenance, monitoring and supervision of urban mobility within Bengaluru.
It aims to create a comprehensive mobility plan for the gridlocked city by adopting sustainable urban transport models.
It also aims to regulate the travel demand in the Urban Mobility Region through measures like congestion parking, parking regulations, tolling, special purpose lanes etc.
It also seeks to address the overlapping functions and responsibilities of different government institutions and departments related to transport in Bengaluru. Such overlaps are hindering the process of planning and implementation of major transportation schemes.
The Bill seeks to increase investment inflows into the city by addressing traffic woes and ensure coordination between various transport and civic bodies for an effective implementation of public transport projects.

What BMLTA that was proposed by the Bill?

The Bengaluru Metropolitan Land Transport Authority (BMLTA) is a new traffic regulation agency proposed by the Bill.
It will consist of 36 members, with the Karnataka Chief Minister being the ex-officio chairman.
Its members include representatives from agencies like BBMP, Bangalore Development Authority, Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority, Bengaluru City Police, South Western Railways and National Highway Authority of India (NHAI).
It will include 3 experts in the field of urban mobility, corporate governance or law, Finance or Transport economics.
It will also have 2 representatives from civil society organisations working in urban mobility, 3 representatives from institutions and associations representing the private sector and professional bodies and 2 representatives from academic institutions.
The functions of the BMLTA are:

Setting up appropriate framework for involving private sector in planning, development and management of mobility service delivery and the effective execution of contracts by the Urban Transport Agencies, Traffic Management Agencies and Infrastructure Development Agencies.
Policy-related recommendations, issuance of permits, vehicle registration, operation of mobility services, handling of goods, management of traffic flow and other such functions will be implemented by the BMLTA.
It will also be involved in the creation of a parking policy, non-motorised transport policy, transit-oriented development policy, multi-modal integration policy and freight transport policy.
It will also prepare a traffic management plan at least once a year. This plan will cover traffic flow for road networks, movements of specific types of vehicles like freight and construction vehicles, traffic calming measures like partial or full closure of streets, traffic management plans for special occasions, incident management plans, emergency evacuation plans and other such measures.

What penalties are proposed by the Bill?

Under this Bill, if an individual violates rules, regulations, orders, and directions of the BMLTA, he/she will incur a fine of up to Rs.1 lakh, which will extend to Rs.2 lakh in case of a second violation.

In case of continuous violation or non-compliance, the individual will be penalized with an additional fine that can extend up to Rs.5,000 per day during the time when the violation continues.

The bill also includes provisions to penalize officials from various state government departments and agencies in case of violations.

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