BENGALURU: The Railway Board recently wrote to the Rail Infrastructure Development Company (Karnataka) Limited (K-RIDE) asking it to fill the vacancy of a full-time managing director. It insisted that its order on eligibility criteria issued seven years ago be adopted. It has been 12 days since the letter was sent to K-RIDE, but no steps have been taken in this connection.
K-RIDE is a joint venture between the Karnataka government and Ministry of Railways. No full-time MD has been appointed for nearly 1.5 years, since Amit Garg was transferred in August 2022.
Dr N Manjula, a qualified doctor and Kannada and Culture department secretary was given additional charge as K-RIDE MD on November 29. This was despite Infrastructure Minister M B Patil promising three months earlier, that a full-time MD would be appointed.
TNIE has a copy of the letter sent by Director, Gati Shakti, Railway Board, on January 15, 2024, directing the MD to re-advertise the vacancy as per guidelines mentioned in the circular the Board had released on January 11, 2017.
That circular was issued seven years ago to all State governments regarding joint venture projects, and mandates a minimum of 25 years of Group A service of which at least 5 years must be in the Senior Administration grade. The age limit is 55 years, with experience of 5 years or more in planning, design and execution of railway-related infrastructure projects.
The Board wants K-RIDE to modify the eligibility criteria for the post it had advertised in September 2023, wherein it specified 65 years as the age limit, and permitted deputation of officers from the State government as well as officers across India.
A source said, “The Board is keen that only technically qualified personnel be appointed in an organisation like K-RIDE, since it will be handling the 148-km Bengaluru Suburban Rail Project crucial for Bengaluru.”
The PMO is monitoring the project closely. “In June 2022, PM Modi had announced the project would be completed in 40 months. By this month-end, 16 months would have lapsed and a full-time MD has still not been appointed,” he said.
Technical expertise lacking
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, reported to be upset after an internal meeting during his visit to Bengaluru recently, had spoken about the need to hire technically qualified people to run the Rs 15,767-crore project.
Even as the project is proceeding at snail’s pace, Joint General Manager and Chief Public Relations Officer Punitha Sadashivaiah has been given additional charge as HR general manager and asked to route all her files through K-RIDE’s Director of Projects and Planning R K Singh, reveals an internal order. In-charge MD N Manjula has been charged with reversing all the orders made by the previous incumbent, Gupta.
Defending her move, Manjula said, “A government official has been made the GM HR temporarily. We have sounded the state government for a full-time employee. There is no harm as they are more aware of government procedures than contractual employees.”
The alignment for both Corridor-1 and Corridor-3 of the Suburban Project is yet to be finalised due to lack of technical expertise. Unless that is done, Railways cannot go ahead with land acquisition and tenders cannot be called,” another source said.