The State government is contributing to delay in the Kochi metro’s extension to Kakkanad and other areas by not appointing a managing director for Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) , Hibi Eden, MP, said here on Saturday.
Principal Secretary K.R. Jyotilal, who has been given additional charge of KMRL, has a whole lot of other State-level responsibilities, with the result that the metro agency has remained orphaned and rudderless since its then MD Alkesh Kumar Sharma was given a new posting, he added.
The government and KMRL have been a failure in readying groundwork for the metro’s extension projects, since there is no one responsible to take them ahead. Mr. Jyotilal did not participate in a national conference of metro rail MDs held in New Delhi. Thus, Kerala was the sole State whose metro system went unrepresented at the meeting, said Mr Eden, who is also a member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Urban Development, under which the metro rail systems come.
Water Metro delayed
Almost all initiatives undertaken by KMRL are running behind schedule. They include Phase-II extension to Kakkanad, which is awaiting the Centre’s approval, and the ₹747-crore Water Metro project. The ₹1,528-crore Integrated Urban Regeneration and Water Transport System (IURWTS) project in Kochi that the metro agency was expected to execute too is a non-starter. All this is primarily because the metro agency does not have a full-time MD. Subsequently, its functioning has become on par with under-performing government agencies, he said.
He added that he had written to Union Minister Nirmala Sitaraman seeking speedy sanction for the metro’s Kakkanad extension.
