CHENNAI: The State government is likely to introduce crucial amendments to operationalise Chennai Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (CUMTA) during this budget session and the first board meeting of the authority is likely in May, a top housing department official said. "We plan to give a presentation to the Chief Secretary on CUMTA in April," the official said.
Sources said the amendment to the Act is aimed at restructuring the administration process of CUMTA. As per the Act, the Chief Urban Planner (Transport) of Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority will be the member-secretary and CEO of CUMTA. This may be changed and a bureaucrat could be made the CEO under the proposed amendment.
Though the CUMTA Act was passed when M Karunanidhi was CM in 2010, it was notified only in January 2019. The Act was amended in September 2020 to appoint CM as chairman of the authority. The first board meeting of the authority however, is yet to be held and officials hope that once the Act is amended to restructure CUMTA, the meeting will be convened.
Currently, 10 agencies from various ministries and departments are involved in traffic and transportation management in Chennai Metropolitan Area (CMA). CUMTA would be a single entity to monitor and implement various traffic and transportation measures, including promotion of mass passenger transport systems and regulation of their operations in the CMA.
After a chief planner (transport), who was acting as member-secretary, recently retired, CMDA has recruited a transport planner and a town planner, giving some shape to the organisational structure.
"We have deputed people from CMDA, Chennai Metro Rail Ltd, and Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) to CUMTA. An office is earmarked on the fifth floor of Tower I of CMDA for CUMTA. A budget of Rs 9.5 crore has been approved by the State. A comprehensive mobility plan for Chennai is also under the government’s review," an official said.
TN officials recently met World Bank officials to operationalise CUMTA. "The highlight of the discussion was to create a development framework for strategic master planning by integrating land-use and transportation with innovative financing. The focus was on multi-modal integration, single ticketing for all modes besides neighbourhood planning for urban transport nodes," the official said.
The government wants CUMTA to be the key coordinating agency for urban mobility services across bus, metro, rail, road, and pedestrian services.
A total of 157 lakh daily trips are made in the city
The buses make 35,79,187 trips having a modal share of 22.6 per cent while two-wheelers undertake 48,87,785 daily trips having a share of 29.60 per cent
The average speed along the mobility corridors is 17.81 kmph in the city and 25.4 kmph in the Chennai Metropolitan area
About 21.3 per cent of roads in Chennai don’t have footpaths, making pedestrians vulnerable to road accidents
The passenger transport usage has shrunk from 26 per cent in 2008 to 23 per cent in 2018
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