VIJAYAWADA: E Sreedharan, known as Metro Man, has tendered his resignation to advisor to AP government on metro rail projects. However, government is yet to respond. The 85-year old expert on metro rail in the country had sent his resignation to Chief Minister Officer. However, government has not taken any decision either to accept or reject his rejection even after two weeks.
According to highly placed sources, the reason for his resignation was differences between him and Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu over ‘metro rail’ projects in AP, particularly, Amaravati Metro Rail Project in Vijayawada. The recent decision of the state Government to discard metro rail project and switch over to Light Metro Rail was an important point, which made him to cut off his ties with AP government. The expert, who had put several months of efforts over studying the metro project for Vijayawada, was seemingly dissatisfied over government’s decision to go for light metro rail in place of metro rail.
It is learnt that the Metro Man was quite peeved with the way he was being treated by the state government and he was annoyed over not getting CM’s appointment even after a month effort.
After the DPR for the Amaravati Metro Rail was submitted, Sreedharan had suggested to call the tenders in five packages. However, the state government disregarding his suggestion went ahead with only two package, which were later cancelled.
Meanwhile, CM Naidu who shifted his attention to Light Metro Rail had sent a team to study the system in China and Malaysia. Municipal Administration minister P Narayana led the team and recently submitted the report to the government recommending Light Metro Rail.