Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar said on Friday that the Transport Department would become a paperless office in order to provide faster service with the introduction of a ERP programme at a cost of `15 crore.
Making the announcement as part of his budget speech, Shettar said that this project would be coupled with establishment of new RTO offices in Banashankari, Chamarajper, RT Nagar and Marathalli in Bangalore as well as Hubli, Suratkal and two Assistant RTOs in Dandeli and Tarikere.
Also on the cards is an e-payment system for collection of Motor Vehicle Tax and an online collection system for vehicle registration data directly from the dealers in order to speed up the process. Reacting to the announcements, K R Srinivas, Transport Commissioner said that the idea behind making the process online is to save the consumer the headache of running around for Demand Drafts. Srinivas said that the services would be extended to other areas in the coming months. Payments towards registrations will be accepted online within the next 10-15 days, he said and the the newly announced RTOs would have these facilities.
High speed rail links
Shettar said that studies on high speed rail connectivity between Chennai-Bangalore-Mysore and Kasargod-Mangalore-Udupi and Bangalore-Hubli-Udupi would be taken up.
Expansion of Hubli, Belgaum airports
Announcing that the expansion of the passenger terminal at the Bangalore International Airport would be completed this year, Shettar said that 600 acres and 370 acres of land had been handed over to undertake expansion on Hubli and Belgaum airports with the Airports Authority of India.
“The construction of airports at Gulbarga and Shimoga will be completed in May and August this year,” he said.
Traffic studies
Shettar said that a comprehensive report of transport and traffic patterns in six municipal corporations and eight other cities in the state had been finalised and will result in a scheme for better management of traffic by setting up pedestrian and cycling paths all over the state.
“A State Urban Transport Fund with an initial corpus of `100 crore has been created. It has provided assistance to Gulbarga and Gadag - Betageri city bus service,” he said.
BRTS for Hubli-Dharwad will be implemented by way of a special purpose vehicle which has been established, according to the CM. The World Bank was providing `250 crore loan for the project. The commuter rail system between Kengeri-Ramnagar, Byappanahalli- Hosur, Yeshwanthpur- Tumkur and Yelahanka - Doddaballapur routes is being studied.