The Hindu : Front Page : Unified metropolitan transport body set up

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Friday, Mar 07, 2008
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Unified metropolitan transport body set up

Krishna Velupillai

Public modes of transportation to come under it
The body will provide better access to Central funds

CHENNAI: A Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority has recently been set up in the city. All modes of public transportation, including Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) buses, the Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) and the proposed Chennai Metro will soon be brought under the purview of this body.

Sometime ago, the first joint meeting was convened by Transport Minister K.N. Nehru to set up the authority. Mr. Nehru is the chairman of the authority and Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) Vice-Chairman T.R. Srinivasan, the Vice-Chairman.

Secretary Highways, Secretary Public Works Department, Commissioner of Police and Corporation Commissioner will be part of the body. The authority will have representatives from the MTC, the Metropolitan Transport Project Wing of Southern Railway, representatives from the National Highways Authority of India and the Housing and Urban Development Ministry.

State Transport Secretary Debendranath Sarangi told The Hindu, the body would expand in the next six months.

The authority would begin with coordination and monitoring tasks, and will later involve itself in planning, approval of projects, fixing tariff, enforcing joint systems and securing funds.

He said setting up the body would enable all local transport and urban development bodies to have better access to Central Government funds under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. The Ministry of Urban Development had been pursuing the formation of a coordinated mechanism for transport at the State-level, as envisaged in the National Urban Transport Policy, which makes urban transport a part of urban planning.

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