(Rptg, correcting word in para three, line four)

Mumbai, June 21 (UNI) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today suggested setting up of a unified metropolitan transport authority for Mumbai to enable a seamless and an efficient integration of all modes of transport in the metropolis.

Launching the ambitious Rs 19,500 crore Mumbai metro rail project, to be implemented in three phases, Dr Singh suggested that a unified transport authority was essential, given the wide variety of transport systems that will co-exist in this city. ''The Mumbai metro will be a landmark in the development of the city,'' he said.

He also expressed the need for new investment in world-class public infrastructure for cities. ''We have to invest in public transport - in roads, with space for bicycles and pedestrians, sanitation, public parks, water bodies, airports rpt airports, railway stations and many other amenities of modern life,'' Dr Singh stressed.

''Our cities have to become more liveable and people-friendly and we have to take steps to enable people who work in the city, to be able to live away from it, thereby contributing in efforts to decongest. All this can be possible only with rapid public transport,'' he suggested.

As the population of a city grows, the importance of public transportation increases. In the absence of good, reliable and affordable public transport, private vehicles will dominate roads, leading to congestion, pollution, more accidents and of course more fuel consumption, he warned.

''We cannot force people to be dependent on costly private transportation. This will not only increase energy consumption, but also exert enormous burden on our ex-chequer. Public transportation has to be the focus of our urban transport policies,'' he expressed.

Stressing that urban governance was in need of reforms, the Prime Minister said municipal administration should be freed from the ''cancer of corruption'' and strangle-hold of land mafia. New innovative mechanisms must be explored to raise resources for efficient and equitable financing of municipal public services, he said.

''Unless people become more pro-active and participate in urban governance, reforms cannot be enforced from above,'' he added.

Dr Singh also urged the people of Mumbai, whom he described as ''enterprising,'' to set an example before the rest of the country and show how they can make the city more liveable.

He appreciated that last year, during the monsoons, people of Mumbai demonstrated to the country and the world their resolved determination, energy, spirit of cooperation and tolerance.

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