§ 50. Statewide transportation planning. Project coordination with statewide transportation plan. Upon review of a proposed municipal project submitted to the commissioner under section forty-nine herein, the commissioner may transmit, within a reasonably prompt time, advisory comments to the Utica transit authority with regard to such project's being a part of or consistent with a statewide comprehensive master plan for transportation promulgated by him and approved by the governor upon the recommendation of the department of state or, in the absence of any such statewide plan, any other recognized long-range regional transportation plan approved by the commissioner or, in the absence of any such regional plan, sound transportation development policy and planning concept. If the commissioner finds such a project to be in conflict with such statewide plan, regional plan or transportation development policy and planning concept, the Utica transit authority shall before undertaking such project, upon the request of the commissioner, state in writing to the commissioner its reasons for undertaking the project notwithstanding such conflict. In no event, however, shall the Utica transit authority submit to the United States or to the State of New York, or any agency or instrumentality of them, an application for a federal or state project unless the application shall have been first approved by the commissioner as being part of or consistent with such statewide plan, regional plan or transportation development policy and planning concept.