Revival of UMTA awaited; It is a key to resolve roadblocks to Hyderabad infra projects

Revivial of Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (UMTA) awaited in Telangana.

The Congress Government in Telangana has been announcing grand plans for improving the existing civic infrastructure or have come out with fresh proposals to extend the metro rail connectivity, new link roads and the first/last mile connectivity to encourage people to take to public transport.

The complex task is not just about the finances alone, but also coordination issues involving various departments like water board, power utilities, national highways, roads & buildings, telecom, fire service, Road Transport Corporation (RTC), railways and the likes.

While agencies like the Hyderabad Metro Rail have been trying to coordinate with the Railways, National Highways, Roads & Buildings, etc., to get them on board and avoid complications like delayed approvals for ‘Right of Way’ later, reviving the moribund Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (UMTA) floated as part of the National Urban Transport Policy (NUTP) could be the ideal method to deal with these tricky issues.

In fact, Hyderabad was quick to grasp the Centre’s initiative on UMTA by forming such a body meant to tone up civic infrastructure and promote public transport 15 years ago, but it became disused after a few years of activity.

The Chief Secretary chairs UMTA with department heads of Municipal Administration & Urban Development (MA&UD), Transport, Finance, top brass of traffic police, Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA), Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), Hyderabad Metro Rail, South Central Railway (SCR) and others being members.

Yet, it has been five years since the last UMTA meeting was heldand official sources claim that none of the recently built flyovers or major civic works were discussed before the works began while issues with common mobility card, bus shelters, pedestrian facilities, first and last mile connectivity, etc., continue to persist with no solution in sight.

“UMTA is of no use unless it gets necessary powers and financial muscle. Cities like Bengaluru and others have been collecting 1% from fuel sales as corpus fund which is helping them to expand their metro rail network. Here, not even the traffic fines collected are shared,” disclosed an official, pleading anonymity.