The Delhi Cabinet on Monday approved the Delhi Urban Mass Transit Authority (DUMTA) Bill, 2010, to provide an accessible and economical public transport system in the city.
The Bill is an attempt to combine planning, provisioning and regulatory functions under one agency on the lines of the Land Transport Authority in Singapore, London, Boston and New York.
After presiding over the Cabinet meeting, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said multiplicity of authority was a major constraint in development of infrastructure in the Capital as the Government does not have any control over land and land-use. “This is affecting the transport sector which is quite crucial for the residents in the city. There is no coordination between the agency responsible for constructing and managing road network, Transport Department and the traffic police.”
To overcome this deficiency, the Union Home Minister had requested Ms. Dikshit to constitute an authority for integrated handling of all transport-related issues. Accordingly, a Bill to provide for the setting up of DUMTA for comprehensive planning, development and regulation of integrated multi-modal public transport and public transit infrastructure was drafted.
Pointing out that in all major cities transport functions were integrated and handled by one agency, the Chief Minister said this sort of mechanism exists in London, Boston, Singapore and New York.
“While strategic planning and functioning involves demand assessment and network creation, detailed deliberations and analysis for setting up of multi-modal networking through appropriate studies, the Department of Transport does not have an in-house capacity to perform these functions. The provisioning function is mainly being performed by the Delhi Transport Corporation which acts both as an operator of the city bus system and also owner and manager of all common assets like bus queue shelters and terminals.”
Informing that the city’s inter-change points were managed by the Transport Department, Ms. Dikshit said roads and allied infrastructure were managed by the Public Works Department and traffic regulation was managed by the Delhi Traffic Police.
“In the name of regulatory functions, the Transport Department is responsible for registration of vehicles, issue of driving licences, issue of permits for buses and other modes of transport and fixing fares for different modes. Even to perform the core regulatory functions like fare setting and route planning the department does not have the necessary expertise. In order to overcome the obstacles, an authority called DUMTA will be constituted.”
The DUMTA will have 11 members with the Chief Minister as its chairperson and member secretary.
