CHENNAI: After the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister was anointed as the chairman of the Chennai Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (CUMTA), the focus is now on when its first meeting will take place. This new body will deal with all traffic and transportation planning and implementation in the city and its extended neighbourhood in the Chennai Metropolitan Area.
It is learnt from official sources that the World Bank has engaged Deloitte as a consultant to come out with an organisational structure for CUMTA and a phased approach for staffing it. The study is likely to be submitted by the end of this year and it is learnt that Deloitte has been conducting meetings with various stakeholders, including the Chennai Corporation.
Sources told The New Indian Express that the first meeting is likely to take place before the board meeting due in February next year. Eight years after it received the Governor's assent and was published in the gazette, the CUMTA Act and its relevant rules were notified last year. The first meeting was scheduled to discuss the requirement of a separate office for the functioning of CUMTA as well as appointment of minimum technical, financial and administration staff in order to start the base work to form a full-fledged office.
However, this was stalled after the World Bank put forth conditions on restructuring of CUMTA under the Chennai City partnership programme. As a result, the Tamil Nadu government amended the CUMTA Act to appoint the Chief Minister as Chairman of the authority. Similarly, the Housing and Urban Development Minister has been made the vice-chairman of CUMTA.
CUMTA does not have any budget allocation or its own office space. Official sources said that once CUMTA is staffed, it will have its own budget to deliver its responsibilities. This also comes as CUMTA is engaging a consultant for a comprehensive mobility plan. Sources also indicated that there could be further changes in the structure of CUMTA where a bureaucrat in the additional chief secretary level could be appointed as member secretary for smooth functioning of the entity. Currently, CUMTA is housed under the Housing and Urban Development Department and the Chief Urban Planner (Transport), CMDA, is the nominated Member-Secretary of CUMTA (as well as the Chief Executive Officer).
It is learnt that a staggering 10 different agencies are involved in traffic and transportation management in the Chennai Metropolitan area. These agencies are governed by various ministries anddepartments. CUMTA would be the sole body to monitor 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.