City's traffic woes: DH submits charter of demands

Successive governments and officials have been, at best, reactionary in their approach to city’s traffic woes, which are multiplying by the day. It’s in view of this looming crisis that DH organised an event to find solutions.

The discussion, ‘A City Stuck in Jams: Is There a Way Out?’, saw senior officials from the government as well as experts and activists from the transport sector emphasising the need for integrating different modes of transport.

Based on the ideas emerging from the event, DH prepared a charter and presented it to Transport Department Principal Secretary B Basavaraju and Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) P Harishekaran.

The demands included ideas from IISc professor of Transport Engineering Ashish Verma and activist Vinay Sreenivasa, who stressed the need for supporting public transport instead of funding huge infrastructure projects like elevated corridors and steel bridge.

Basavaraju, who received the charter, said work was on to establish the Bengaluru Metropolitan Land Transport Authority (BMLTA) and the long-pending Road Safety Authority. “The charter of demands has some good suggestions. We are already working on implementing some of these and will consider others too,” he said.

At present, issues related to city commute are handled by the Transport, Urban Development and Home Department. The BMLTA will act as an overarching body where plans and decisions are made with the concurrence of all departments at once.

Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) P Harishekaran said he would distribute the copies of the citizens’ charter among DCPs (Traffic) and discuss how best the points can be implemented.

Officials said the formation of a road safety authority was in the last stages. The Assembly has already passed the bill, only rules have to be framed, they said.