BENGALURU: Big-ticket infrastructure projects such as the proposed tunnel road and elevated corridors will not require the approval of the Bengaluru Metropolitan Land Transport Authority (BMLTA), a statutory body created to integrate and oversee all urban mobility and public transport projects in Bengaluru, as the Congress-led state government has notified the Bengaluru Metropolitan Land Transport Authority (BMLTA) Rules 2026.
Despite strong opposition from mobility experts and citizen groups to the ‘savings’ clause in the draft BMLTA rules released in January, which they warned could allow all major infrastructure projects initiated between 2022 and 2025 to bypass BMLTA scrutiny, the government issued the final notification dated July 2, without removing the provision.
“Before the establishment of the Bengaluru Metropolitan Land Transport Authority and after the date of commencement of the Act, all the previous decisions, plans and operations and pending proceedings on the date of commencement of these rules, shall be deemed to have been construed under the Act,” the savings clause in the final notification states.
All the projects that were planned before BMLTA became operational, shall be deemed to have been construed as per the final notification, limiting the authority’s role in reviewing big ticket infra projects.