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any, leads as to what Bangalore can expect from BMLTA? Did he reveal what is in store?

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Two major drawbacks that I see

1. BMLTA does not have authority to regulate (will their mandate to prepare a regulatory framework solve this?)

2. BMLTA cant audit projects ( Is this a bandwidth/capacity issue or it is not their charter?)

The biggest positive is they seem to have the right kind of people with the right kind of knowledge to do the job.

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Here are my key takeaways from the meeting.

a. It is good that there is finally a body that is trying to coordinate various organizations to ensure a holistic traffic and tpt plan. 

b. The number of organizations involved in traffic and transport is huge.  Each one will try and defend its turf and someone like Mr.Gupta has to work really hard at managing this bureaucracy.

c. He made an interesting point about people like us (praja members e.g.) can be the eyes and ears for BMLTA as they cannot be physically everywhere.

d. It was good to see qualified young people being recruited for this. 

I think we need to find some meaningful ways of engaging with BMLTA to take this forward.

Srivathsa

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Mr Gaurav Gupta did not say that 'competition from private sector was not a good idea'. He said that if competition was to come in, BMTC may want to operate in other cities also (I expect he meant even outside the state). I had responded with a "yes, of course". And, then he went on to say that he will revert to the subject later, but did not. Obviously, he cannot express his views on this sensitive issue (why so sensitive - I don't know) openly.

Incidentally, going by press reports, an MOU is being signed today between GoK and Go-Chattisgarh for setting up a 2000 MW thermal power plant in Chattisgarh. I am sure it's going to be executed and operated by our own KPCL. Thereafter, there's a possibility that they may add capacity and supply power to other states also. KPCL is a fairly competent company. But, it has been driven to near bankruptcy because of non-receipt of payments from its only customer KPTCL, which again is the result of skewed government policy. They would be happy to add on credit-worthy customers.

Yes, I am also impressed with the credentials of his young team members, and that holds great hope as far as I am concerned. Hope also wells from Mr Gupta's statement that there is now an overall appreciation amongst the other stake-holders of the role of BMLTA, and co-ordination is beginning to happen.

If I heard it right, he also seemed to suggest that many of the projects which have been announced, but not started, could be reviewed if a sufficiently strong case could be made out for the review. Oh, but, aren't they supposed to have public hearings before they decide on any project - overlooked checking on that.

Well, this is only the first meeting. And, with Mr Gupta's openness, and overall acceptance of PRAJA as a lot with a proactive approach, I suppose we can mutually contribute to improving the overall quality of life in the city as well as the state.

Another thing he acknowledged but chose not to comment on was "Yelli Iddira?". No idea why, though.

Muralidhar Rao

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So we showed up on time, 12:30 pm. All combined there were 8 of us (Ravi, srivathsa, sudheendra, blrsri, ananth sir, murali sir, rithesh and myself). We talked till about 2:15 pm, a good hour and a half!

The meeting ran longer than expected partly because we made Mr Gupta digress from topics beyond BMLTA (BBMP, tier-II cities, more), and partly because Mr Gupta had a lot to share about BMLTA. Personally, I didn't mind the digressions, Mr Gupta having a lot of experience with other public agencies in Bangalore and other parts of the state, you get to hear insights on how this massive engine called state government works.

For instance, we delved into BBMP's capacity problems. He kind of said BBMP doesn't function in the best of ways, but then they have sever staff shortage. I do support that theory that BBMP has too much on its hands,

Another thing, this we didn't know, he mentioned was that BMLTA is helping (not sure if they are doing it themselves, or helping someone RITES do it) with CTTP like plans of many tier-II cities of Karnataka. Those cities may be one tenth of Bangalore today, but they got to be ready early. Personally, I am all ears whenever I hear tier-II.

To summarize the meeting in just 1-2 lines : BMLTA faces challenges coordinating across various public agencies as coordination requires each body to "give in" a bit, but things should get better with time. Mr Gupta and gang came across as "okay, it kind of sucks right now, but lets not give up" team.

Talking of Mr Gupta's team, they looked like having impressive resumes. One from School of Planning and Architecture (SPA), Delhi , another just defended his doctoral thesis at IISc on the subject land-use and urban planning, and the third has studied town planning (forgot, Rithesh, Ravi - correct if you remember) at MIT (Boston)! Not bad, haan?

Ananth sir has already listed the specifics we heard about. Mr Gupta said we got to be patient, repeated that a few times, and perhaps that tells us that BMLTA isn't working on any quikc-win quick-result projects.

From Praja point of view, one good thing was that he saw the meeting as a beginning, only a first. Specifically, I asked him for help on three things

• Tell us more about Commuter railway system (CRS), a project he said BMLTA is expected to coordinate on. We also asked him for contacts of key persons in South Western Railway who we can meet and find out more. We didn't hear a lot about CRS from him, didn't have time to cover it in detail, so next meeting, or via email.
• Help us track all these projects running off from Bangalore CTTP? We know the plans, they all look good, but our issues is execution. At Praja, we are interesting in tracking all these projects. He said he will share whatever information he has. We should expect new stuff on BMLTA website.
• How can Praja help BMLTA? Rithesh and I said we are interested in "scrutinizing" (watching) city's projects, and help people take deeper interest. He said we could make people know more, and we can help expose a lot more issues than what newspapers can or will ever do. He even threw a number - papers probably talk about 2% of issues. If you go deep and local, there is a lot lot more that the city should be made aware of.

One key message was - this one we have heard in all meetings we have done so far - don't just sit out and act like cynic or critic. Come in, and suggest, as per him, most agencies appreciate constructive feedback and help. Well, that sort of is what we want Praja's philosophy to be, isn't it. Be positive, criticism are incomplete without accompanying suggestions :)

Oh gosh. There was so much we heard and talked, there was a lot of off-the-record stuff too. But a day after the meeting, above is how I remember it. Will add more as I recall based on questions and discussion here.

And yeah, there are 6 more reports waiting to come in. Lets stay tuned. Rithesh took some pictures as well, should see them soon.

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