BENGALURU: After a long gap to speed up completion of the Suburban Rail project, Indian Railways has put out an advertisement, calling for applications for the post of Managing Director of Rail Infrastructure Development Company (Karnataka) Limited (K-Ride).
Experts and officials in K-Ride said this is a welcome and much-needed move to pace up the project. The Railways has listed details of the post which is for a duration of three years.
According to K-Ride sources, the only time the department had a full time managing director was in 2021, when Amit Garg held the post. After that, many IAS officers have been posted, holding concurrent charge.
“With Railways inviting applications, it shows the push. But this is also late -- when the foundation for the project was laid in June 2022 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he had assured its completion in 40 months, and the term ends in October 2025. However, the MD’s official posting will take at least another two months as the last date to submit applications for the post is July 5, 2025,” the source said.
The government has listed out criteria details for the post: The applicant should not be above 55 years of age as on March 31, 2025. The applicant should have a minimum of 25 years experience of which at least five years should be in Senior Administrative Grade. The applicant should also have five years experience or more in the planning/ design/ execution of railway-related infrastructure projects.
The criterion also stated: “It is desirable to have the experience of projects report preparation, sanction, resource mobilization and coordination with other ministers and stake holders.” Experts also pointed out that the state and central governments have not taken serious note of the need to execute the project. The long delays have only made Bengaluru’s traffic management worse.
Raj Duggar, from Citizens for Citizens, a resident welfare group, said the call for filing the MD post reflects that issues between the State and Union governments have been sorted out.
“The appointment process must be expedited and work on all four corridors of the suburban rail project and two track doubling projects being carried out by K-Ride must be taken up on a war footing as only 10 per cent of the work has been completed.
“The Suburban Rail is designed to become the third public transport mode of Bengaluru, as an economical, fast, comfortable, eco-friendly, safe and reliable option,” he added.
Experts also demanded that South Western Railways give swift permission for extension of the corridors to the nearby towns of Tumakuru, Kunigal, Magadi, Ramanagara, Anekal, Bangarpet, Chikkaballapura and Doddaballapura. They said this will facilitate commuters and also help develop these towns.