Maha govt to set up Transport authority for Mumbai

Mumbai: The Maharashtra Government has decided to set up an independent regional transport authority for the Mumbai metropolitan region. The aim of the authority is to make travel citizen-centric, said Mr S.C. Jamir, Governor of Maharashtra.

He was addressing the joint session of the Maharashtra Legislature on Monday. Mr Jamir said that the authority would have jurisdiction concurrent with the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA). It will allow easy transit of autos and taxis throughout the region, he said. The computerised smart card driving license system has been further extended. It is now operational in 40 out 45 transport offices and 28,95,344 smart cards license have been issued, Mr Jamir said.

He further said that the State had declared the year 2008 as ‘e-Governance year’ with the vision of a ‘Digital Maharashtra’. As a part of the vision, the Government has decided to establish an online interactive portal for the delivery of various services on real time basis. Soon a project to computerised ration cards and targeted at the pPublic dDistribution sSystem would be launched, he said.

On industrial development Mr Jamir said that during 2007 the State attracted Rs 62,600 crore in terms of entrepreneur memorandum and Letter of Intents (LoIs) for 454 projects. The projects have an employment potential of 2.1 lakh. LoIs were also issued to 72 private industrial parks.

During the year 19 biotechnology units have also been registered, he said. The State has approval for 128 SEZs, which is highest in the country. The total investment commitments received during the last two and half years for 92 mega projects is over Rs 1,14,000 crore, he added.