State government should form unified metropolitan transport authority for Pune, says PMRDA commissioner Kiran Gitte

The Pune metropolitan region development authority has written a letter to the state government and has appealed to form a unified metropolitan transport authority (UMTA) for the city and state level urgently. 

PMRDA metropolitan commissioner Kiran Gitte, said, “While approving the metro project for PMRDA, the central government has made it mandatory to form UMTA within a period of one year. As per central governments instructions, we appealed the state government to form UMTA at city and state level.” 

Gitte said that UMTA is an upper body to coordinate all the transport related issues. It will be an umbrella body through which the government routes budgetary allocations for mobility projects. 

As PMRDA has prepared the comprehensive mobility plan and trying to introduce many transport-related projects, it is a must to have UMTA in the city. UMTA will coordinate all the agencies like Pune mahangar parivahan mahamandal limited (PMPML), Maharashtra state road transport corporation (MSRTC), Maharashtra metro rail corporation limited (Maha-Metro) railways, airports authority of India and other all agencies which are trying to execute transport-related projects. 

Gitte said that the PMRDA proposed two-tier committees for UMTA. One will be at state-level which would be headed by a chief secretary and other would be at city level which will be headed by the secretary-level officer. 

It is long pending demand for having a UMTA in the state. As per the national urban transport policy which was framed in the year 2006, it is suggested to have UMTA for all the cities which have a population of more than 10 lakh. To maintain better coordination among all the transport related projects there is a need to have better coordination among all the agencies. We see the situation now there is no proper coordination among the transport related agencies. By considering this now central government is forcing the state governments to form the UMTA if they want to execute metro projects in their cities.

What is UMTA?

UMTA is an upper body to coordinate all the transport related issues. It will be an umbrella body through which the government routes budgetary allocations for mobility projects. 

How it will help transport agencies?

UMTA will coordinate all the agencies like Pune mahangar parivahan mahamandal limited (PMPML), Maharashtra state road transport corporation (MSRTC), Maharashtra metro rail corporation limited (Maha-Metro) railways, airports authority of India and other all agencies which are trying to execute transport-related projects. And also coordinate between the agencies to execute various works.