Kerala sitting on UMTA proposal for a year

KOCHI: The proposal to set up an Urban Metropolitan Transport Authority, a single agency that will plan and regulate the entire urban transport system in Kochi, still awaits the government’s approval.

Sources told DC that though the Kochi Metro Rail Ltd had submitted the draft Bill of UMTA Kerala for approval nearly a year ago, the state government had not initiated any action on the proposal.

The reluctance of top bureaucrats in Thiruvananthapuram to relinquish their powers and lack of will of the political leadership are the major hurdles causing delay in the Bill receiving clearance.

UMTA is essential for the smooth functioning of the Kochi Metro rail project, which is scheduled to be operational by next year. UMTA will allow the integration of the existing transport systems — bus, rail and  boat services — with the Metro project thereby providing seamless connectivity to and from Metro stations that are located at various parts of the city.

The authority will have to deal with three major aspects of the system — a single transportation network with seamless interchange, seamless ticketing system and a unified transportation network management and command and control.

It was in June last year that  KMRL had submitted the UMTA draft proposal to the government. Drawing up the draft was a laborious task involving  several rounds of discussions with stakeholders.

The government had earlier issued a notification forming a committee under the chairmanship of KMRL managing director Elias George to come up with the draft proposal.

The Better Kochi Response Group held a meeting on Tuesday when  several speakers urged the government to speed up the clearance. 

PWD Minister V.K. Ebrahim Kunju said  that the matter would be brought to the notice of the government. The draft Bill is currently under the consideration of a committee of secretaries.