BMC suggests 13,000 crore spend for better public transport

The city will require more than Rs 13,000 crore to consolidate its public transport infrastructure by 2019 and the largest chunk of over Rs 4,000 crore would have to be spent on strengthening the road and highway system, suggests the BMC's mobility plan for Mumbai. Additional municipal commissioner SVR Srinivas highlighted that the consultant appointed to draft the mobility plan along with the BMC had collected large amounts of data pertaining to population and employment in the city, one of the planning parameters. The land use pattern of the city was also studied in detail to come up with the land use transport model. "The report has given long-term transport strategy and identification of transport network in three stages—up to the year 2019, 2024 and 2034. We have now sent the report to various agencies, including the MMRDA, for their suggestions," said Srinivas. According to the comprehensive mobility plan, of the 13,378 crore required to strengthen the public transport system by 2016, Rs 4,851 crore would be required to be spent on strengthening the road and highway system, Rs 3,821 on putting traffic management measures in place and Rs 207 crore to strengthen the bus transport system. The civic traffic wing, along with a consultant, had drafted the comprehensive mobility plan as the BMC felt that there is a growing demand for road space in the already congested city. The study has also identified several "missing links" that the BMC plans to take up on priority such as the proposed Mahalaxmi road overbridge. The report has also studied the need to improve junctions and set up more subways, skywalks and bus bays. An action plan has also been prepared which suggests several measures including implementation of an integrated fare structure and common ticketing among existing public transport systems.