PIL AGAINST THE STATE GOVERNMENT

THE COMPLAINT
The City’s inhabitants have been subject to unscientific
methods of traffic control & regulation that are relentlessly
being pursued by the responsible authorities. This has
seriously jeopardized pedestrian safety & movement on the
streets. It has also increased dependence on private
motorized modes for mobility, forcing people away from
walking, bicycling & public transport. There has been
minimal consideration for the welfare of pedestrians &
bicyclists & negligible efforts at prioritizing public transport
by the concerned authorities. This has led to a huge increase
in the no. of motor vehicles in the city.

Sidewalks for pedestrians on major arterial roads that are

being widened, such as Racecourse road & Seshadri road
have deliberately been made very narrow & left uneven,
reflecting low priority, whilst vehicle carriageways have been
made excessively wide after increased road width available
with land acquisitions.

Despite evidence & examples that such unscientific road

development results in even more private motorized traffic
that slows down movement of public transport & severely
disadvantages walking & bicycling, the city corporation
continues with these undesirable methods to deal with traffic
& congestion. These unsatisfactory responses to the needs
of the city by the city corporation must be stopped urgently
as it has been causing a great deal of inconveniences to the
general public. Unless this is halted, the quality of life in the
city will keep deteriorating further.

The administrative structure & mechanisms have clearly

failed & have not been up to the task. In fact, they appear
clueless about steps to be taken to rectify the situation. A
well coordinated & planned effort by all concerned agencies
is what is required to address the urgent issue of street
congestion in the city, but such a plan is yet to be prepared,
though a study with recommendations has been ready for
long.

RECOMMENDATIONS BY THE CENTRAL GOVERNMENT

To prevent such singular & one-sided attention & others

from being ignored, the central government’s National Urban
Transport Policy (NUTP-2006) had prescribed the formation
of a unified Metropolitan Transport Authority to co-ordinate
with various bodies & to halt such indiscriminate, unplanned
responses that only aggravate problems. The State
government had accordingly constituted the following
bodies:

1) The State Directorate of Urban Land Transport [DULT],

under the Urban Development Department vide Order No.
UDD 134 BMR 2006 (I), dated 8.3.2007.
2) Bangalore Metropolitan Land Transport Authority (BMLTA),
vide Order No. UDD 134 BMR 2006 (2), dated 9.3.2007
with the following functions :

• To co-ordinate all land transport matters in Bangalore

Metropolitan Region.
• To prepare a detailed Master Plan for Transport
Infrastructure based on the Comprehensive Traffic and
Transport Study (CTTS) for Bangalore.
• To oversee implementation of all transportation
projects.
• To appraise and recommend transportation and
infrastructure projects for bilateral / bilateral Central
assistance.
• To function as empowered Committee for all Urban
Transportation Projects.
• To initiate action for a regulatory framework for all land
transport systems in BMR.
• To initiates steps, where feasible for common ticketing
system.
• Take any other decision for the integrated urban
transport and land use planning and Implementation of
the projects.
However, the existence of these bodies for over 1½ years
has had no effect so far & no steps have been taken to
reverse this unsatisfactory trend. No attempts have been
made to bring about much needed changes. Pedestrians &
bicyclists continue to be losers, whilst public road transport
has become time-consuming for commuters. Pollution levels
have been worsening in the city.

THE VIOLATIONS
Environment friendly measures that need to be promoted
are being ignored. Cleaner, greener initiatives in the city &
with road transport planning have so far been grossly
inadequate with large increases in traffic volumes. Thus, the
central governments’ policies & recommendations under the
National Urban Transport Policy (NUTP-2006) have not been
adhered to & in fact, the city’s development has diverged
away from NUTP-2006 guidelines. Norms for street planning,
as outlined by Indian Road Congress (IRC) have also been
ignored as pedestrian facilities have been seriously
compromised with narrow, broken down sidewalks that are
not in conformity with prescribed guidelines. There have
been no bicycle-friendly initiatives as per NUTP-2006 & IRC
guidelines. The green cover with shady trees by the street
sides is being destroyed with each road widening.

Whilst BMRCL is constructing the first phase of a Metro-rail

network based on previous study recommendations, other
government bodies have ignored most other
recommendations as outlined in the latest transport study
(CTTS). The study had recommended a Commuter rail
system (CRS) on existing rail tracks, a Bus rapid system
(BRT) & also a Light-rail (or Monorail) system. None of these
systems are being pursued nor planned yet, though it has
been over 1½ years since the study had been concluded.
The city corporation has, contrary to recommendations,
turned it’s attention to provide ‘signal-free’ corridors on
Bellary road (road to new airport) & on eastern half of Outer
ring road for all traffic now – an effort echoing it’s past
responses to increased traffic scenarios. Such
recommendations were never made in the CTTS study
report. Prioritized bus services, or BRT was what had been
recommended on Bellary road & on eastern half of ORR.

THE PLEAS
1) Generally, the relevant transport bodies, such as BMTC,
SWR & BMRCL, the body that is building the Metro-rail
system, aided by the city corporation (BBMP) & the City
Traffic Police must plan a complete shift out from the
present stalemate. They need to work as a team with a
common goal, with full coordination under the direction of
BMLTA, the Unified Transport Authority for Bangalore
Metropolitan Region (BMR).
2) Based on the recommendations from CTTS, all relevant
bodies must together prepare a plan to relieve the city’s
roads of excessive traffic. Such a plan must include
development of all public mass transport systems with full
details, & include measures to restrain traffic with TDM
principles, as will be necessary once the Metro rail & other
mass-transit system/s are operational in the city. Once a
plan for decongestion & various mass transport route
alignments & modes, etc. is ready, & agreed /accepted by
all bodies, it must be well publicized for public support &
objections, if any, & for eventual implementation. Once
finalized, each body must adhere to it’s responsibilities as
per the plan with no deviations, whatsoever, unless
extraneous conditions warrant a shift, as agreed to, by all
parties. All through these phases, the concerned agencies
must coordinate & work with full co-operation with one
another.
3) The plan developed as above must include alternatives in
case construction of one or more of the various modes of
mass transport lag behind in time.
4) Since the creation of DULT /BMLTA has had no impact
whatsoever on the city’s road traffic & public transport
administration until now, it is desirable that BMLTA be
accorded more statutory powers to provide stable & full
 umbrella arrangements for overseeing all aspects for
relieving congestion & public mass transport
development, including scrutiny & approving various road
development schemes by the city corporation (BBMP),
whilst ensuring that future demand analysis that takes
account of an operational Metro rail system & also
Commuter Rail /BRT systems is mandatory for all future
road developments.
5) Construction of phase-1 of the Metro rail project is
expected to be completed by 2012 & trains would become
operational from then on. The concerned authorities do
not seem to have charted what feeder bus routes would
be necessary to help commuters reach the Metro stations.
The various bodies under BMLTA, particularly BMRCL,
BMTC & SWR need to urgently commission a joint study &
finalize bus feeder system requirements & routes for the
Metro-rail for all phase-1 stations & commuter rail stations
along routes that may become operational. Based on this
study, near term road development programs can be
finalized, instead of ad-hoc road widening, as has been the
case to-date.
6) The various transport bodies also need to conduct a study
well in advance before completion of construction of
phase-2 of the Metro-rail (& phase-3, if there is a 3rd
phase), to determine what feeder routes would be
necessary, taking into consideration other modes of mass
transits that might also come up by then.
7) The plan must also include a study to be carried out at an
appropriate time to work on feasibility & for appointing a
regulatory body to pave the way for privatization of bus
services within the city as the no. of routes would be
enormous with increased areas & shorter feeder routes,
without any compromise to commuters’ interests.