Chennai to have its own transport policy!

C Shivakumar

Chennai:

Chennai will soon have its own transport urban transport policy with the implementation of Chennai Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority.

As plans are afoot to to ease congestion in the city, the Chennai Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority which came into being in 2010 is chalking out a series of measures to make traveling easier.

As the city is on a transition phase with massive projects changing the skyline of the city, CUMTA, the brainchild of planners, bureaucrats and technocrats, will work on making mobility quicker and simpler.

Interestingly, the first meeting of CUMTA, which came into being in 2010, was held earlier this month and many ideas were discussed besides the composition of the authority.

Sources said the authority, which shall be a corporate body will initially consist of 21 members under the chairmanship of the Transport Minister.

The focus of CUMTA will be to frame an urban transport policy for the Chennai Metropolitan Area on the lines of National Urban Transport Policy.

The salient features of CUMTA will include monitoring the implementation of various traffic and transportation measures including promoting the cause of public mass passenger transport systems and regulating their operations besides implementation of traffic and transportation infrastructure in the Chennai Metropolitan Area, transport sources said.

Sources said the main role of CUMTA would be to take decisions on matters that would impinge on transport in the Chennai Metropolitan Area and oversee that no steps are initiated by any agencies or local bodies that detract from the overall efficiency of the Comprehensive Transportation Plan.

The other members of CUMTA include chief Secretary, vice-chairman of CMDA besides one eminent traffic and transportation expert nominated by the government.