Guest column: Every ship needs captain, and Metro requires unifying governing body

The Metro is like ace cricketer, Sachin Tendulkar. It can score a century by itself, but eventually the aim is for the team to win. Every ship needs a captain and every team a coach to plan things in totality. It is not enough for the Metro or the BMTC to be success stories alone. All modes of transport should do well too.

And for this we need a unifying governing body like the Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (UMTA). When we say that someone was not able to cross a road, we also need to ask whether that person was crossing the road to get to a bus, an auto, the metro, taxi, or to go home. And also whether that person should cross at all and if yes, what was the best way for him or her to do so.

There needs to be an objective definition of the multi-modal integration issue we all speak of, and the Metro cannot do it alone. What should be done and how, should be worked out by the UMTA. This does not require rocket science.

Besides having a regulatory body, we also need to have regular audit and verification to fix the specific interchange issues. The detailed project report of Phase-1 of the Metro for the Majestic had previously included proper pedestrian access, but the BMRCL completely washed its hands off this during construction. And after Phase-1 was completed, who questioned it about this? Who did a quality or expenditure audit?

Someone needs to do the policing. There is no point if the operation is a success but the patient is dead. This should be a team effort of all agencies under an umbrella organisation that will hold them accountable. Sixty per cent of UMTA members must be made up of citizen groups and 40 per cent of elected representatives and experts.