(a) As used in this Code section, the term:

(1) "Capital project" has the same meaning as in 49 U.S.C.A. Section 5302(a)(1).

(2) "Construction" means the supervising, inspecting, actual building, and all expenses incidental to the acquisition, actual building, or reconstruction of facilities and equipment for use in mass transportation, including designing, engineering, locating, surveying, mapping, and acquisition of rights of way.

(3) "Mass transportation" means all modes of transportation serving the general public which are appropriate, in the judgment of the department, to transport people, commodities, or freight by highways, rail, air, water, or other conveyance, exclusive of wires and pipelines.

(b) Subject to general appropriations for such purposes, the department may, alone or in cooperation with counties, municipalities, authorities, state agencies, or private or public transit companies, plan, develop, supervise, support, own, lease, maintain, and operate mass transportation facilities or systems.

(c)

(1) The department may, when funds are available from the United States government for such purposes, provide assistance to the operators of mass transportation systems or to the owners of facilities used in connection therewith for the payment of operating expenses to improve or to continue such mass transportation service by operation, lease, contract, or otherwise.

(2) The department may, when funds are available from the United States government for such purposes, participate in the acquisition, construction, and improvement of facilities and equipment, including capital projects, for use, by operation or lease or otherwise, in mass transportation service.

(3) The department's participation with state funds in those programs specified in paragraphs (1) and (2) of this subsection may be in either cash, products, or in-kind services. The department's participation with state funds shall be limited to the minimum nonfederal share of the program. The remainder shall be provided from sources other than department funds or from revenues from the operation of public mass transportation systems.

(d) The department shall not enter into any contract with any private entity for the purposes set out in subsections (b) and (c) of this Code section without the prior concurrence of the State Transportation Board.

(e) Funds appropriated to the department pursuant to Article III, Section IX, Paragraph VI(b) of the Constitution of Georgia may not be utilized for any of the purposes set out in this Code section.

(f) In order to effectuate and enforce this Code section, the department is authorized to promulgate necessary rules and regulations and to prescribe conditions and procedures in order to assure compliance in carrying out the purposes of this Code section.

(g) The department shall not be authorized, without the concurrence of the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, to receive federal financial assistance to provide mass transportation services or facilities that will duplicate those mass transportation services or facilities provided or to be provided by the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, within the City of Atlanta and Fulton and DeKalb counties, as a part of its rapid transit system, including the use of buses as well as a rail system, as that system is described in an engineering report, dated September 1971, prepared for the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority by Parsons-Brinckerhoff-Tudor-Bechtel, general engineering consultants, and adopted as part of the Rapid Transit Contract and Assistance Agreement, dated September 1, 1971, between the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, the City of Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia, and DeKalb County, Georgia.