Boris Johnson maintained the frantic pace of his mayoralty today as it emerged that he will personally oversee London's transport - as well as resume his newspaper columns.

Less than a week after confirming that he will chair the Metropolitan Police Authority, the Mayor made a surprise announcement that he would also chair the Transport for London board. His intentions emerged as the Standard learned that he will be paid around £250,000 a year for writing for the Daily Telegraph. The money will be on top of his Mayor's salary of £137,579.

To counter criticism about his workload, he is expected to write the column in his spare time at weekends. He will also write columns for local newspapers across the capital in an effort to get his message across now that he has scrapped Ken Livingstone's freesheet The Londoner.

The decision to resume the weekly Daily Telegraph column, a role he dropped in January during the election campaign, means that he will effectively be combining at least four jobs - Mayor, chair of the MPA, chair of TfL and newspaper columnist.

But in a bid to defuse any criticism, Mr Johnson has agreed to give around £50,000 of his Telegraph fee to two causes close to his heart: funding £25,000 worth of journalism bursaries at the London College of Communication and £25,000 towards teaching classics to state schoolchildren.

Mr Livingstone chaired TfL, but not the police authority. Mr Johnson's decision to take a more hands-on approach is balanced by appointment of deputy mayors in key areas. There is a precedent for the Mayor writing for newspapers. Ken Livingstone was a columnist for The Independent in his first 18 months in office. Speculation about Mr Johnson's return to journalism - the trade that first endeared him to Tory voters - has been rife since he decided to suspend his column earlier this year.

Guto Hari, his spokesman, could not confirm yet exactly how much Mr Johnson would be paid: "When we know the sum, we will declare it." He added the Mayor would not expect to be paid for writing for local newspapers.

Insiders say it is almost certain that he sought permission from Conservative leader David Cameron. Mr Hari added: "Since scrapping The Londoner, Boris wants to find other ways of communicating with Londoners."

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